I take it that liberties were taken with Moorcock's novel. I'm sure they had to change around that which required too much of a budget. The film looks good and I like the performances but what in the heck is going on here?
Jerry Cornelius (JC-how clever) goes to his dad's funeral & those scientists want the mircofilm which wastes a good hour to get a hold of. Fine. But what of Frank & Catherine at Jerry's house? Those are his siblings? Frank is drugging her for what reason? Why are there weird death traps in the house? What was that plastic bubble room for? Why is Ms. Brunner super strong & how can she absorb people? If she is already a superhuman, why does she need to be the Messiah? Why is it that the final being that appears only resembles Jerry & not Brunner? And why is it like a caveman if it is an advanced human? What is that scene with Sterling Hayden about? Why does Jerry go around looking for naplam that he never uses?
Now, this I believe was the first Jerry C. novel. What are the others like if he becomes some weird Messiah in this one? Or do the others take place eariler?
From what I remember, the novel was written in the 60s... expecting it to make sense may be optimistic :).
The movie is one of my 'guilty pleasures', but I still don't really understand what half of it is meant to be about :). I haven't read the novel, but I believe the 'merged' character in the end was a Christ-like hemaphrodite, not a cave-man: I think Moorcock was upset about the changes they made there.
frank (jerrys brother) is addicted to a drug that he used to write the ad's for, he also got his sister hooked against her will.
the weird death traps are there because jerrys dead dad was paranoid about his work and died a recluse
the plastic bubble room was one of the traps
i have no idea about ms brunner...none at all
the final being looks like jerry because in the last scene of them moulding together he says 'no WE are going to be the new messiah', basically she had always expected to be the dominant force within the new being but jerry decided otherwise. she was present in her reproductive organs and brain only.
i think he looks like a caveman because it is meant to symbolize new beginings
jerry never uses the napalm because the plan goes wrong.
its a really bad film saved by some fantastic characters and sets in my HO.
It was a bit of a guilty pleasure. I thought the script was very funny, with some great one-liners, but, if anything, I thought the sets were a tad unconvincing, as were the "psychedelic" effects. I think the caveman at the end represented the project going wrong, perhaps because of Jerry's involvement, owing to his overall pessimism about such things, maybe.
First things first, you have to read the book; that explains a lot, but it's an unconventional narrative with lots of ideas that Moorcock (and others who ended up writing Cornelius stories) experimented with.
Looking for meaning is going to be fraught with danger; basically the whole concept is less about continuity and more about the introduction of concepts, ideas and subversion.
While "The Final Programme" is the first in the series, its end doesn't affect the rest of the novels and stories. Jerry is portrayed as black in one novel, his sister reappears, his mother is - against all odds - a cockney char woman with an accent you could cut with a knife; frankly, it's all really about the whole experimentation of the late 1960s, psychedelia and apocalyptic outlook.
Jerry is also regarded as the final incarnation of Moorcock's "Eternal Champion", but is revealed in the end to be a harlequin, or powerless semi-tragic, semi-comic figure to whom things happen rather than being a character in control of his destiny. He's a conduit for the ideas of the many authors who have written about him.
Oh, and as for the caveman, I feel this was Fuest trying to be ironic. I wish he'd just stuck with the original ending of the book. This point really disappointed me and was an unnecessary ending to a movie which, while flat and odd in parts, was quite fun.
But don't take my word for it, here's what the author has to say about the character:
I've seen this film in 1974 in the US and I couldn't understand anything.But I was a teenage looking for some nudity.And got some at the end but still this film stay in my head foy years.When I remember the title I bought the DVD and tried to understand the film story,yes there where some plot line that were some what off.Sometimes the filmmakers don't want to tell that story written in the novel;perhap the story was sort of weird an misunderstood.I never read the novel and had no idea the film was base on a novel.I understand that jerry had to find a formula to make a new kind of human life that would not destroy the world;my thinking is a new "man" needs to be created to save the world from MASS DESTRUCTION,the father had such a formula.So going back on this film 30 years later help me understand the film story idea.And maybe one some filmmaker would make a better film.
"Jerry Cornelius (JC-how clever) goes to his dad's funeral & those scientists want the mircofilm which wastes a good hour to get a hold of. Fine. But what of Frank & Catherine at Jerry's house? Those are his siblings?"
Yes, Frank & Catherine Cornelius are Jerry's siblings.
"Frank is drugging her for what reason?"
No reason other than he can.
"Why are there weird death traps in the house?"
Because Mr. Cornelius built them to ensure privacy.
"What was that plastic bubble room for?"
It's a weird death trap.
"Why is Ms. Brunner super strong & how can she absorb people?"
No reason. She just can, it's never explained.
"If she is already a superhuman, why does she need to be the Messiah?"
She is one half of the Messiah. Jerry Cornelius is the other half.
"Why is it that the final being that appears only resembles Jerry & not Brunner? "
Because Jerry became the dominant personality, rather than a equal or passive one.
"And why is it like a caveman if it is an advanced human?"
Because the brains were high on the drugs Jerry slipped them and blew up. Also he became the dominant personality. Therefore, the Final Programme produced a Caveman Messiah instead of a Hermaphrodite Messiah as it was supposed to.
"What is that scene with Sterling Hayden about?"
He's an arms dealer.
"Why does Jerry go around looking for naplam that he never uses?"
His plan gets changed.
"Now, this I believe was the first Jerry C. novel."
Yes.
"What are the others like if he becomes some weird Messiah in this one?"
Weirder. Funnier. Everything gets remade differently each time.