MovieChat Forums > The Game (1997) Discussion > Have you heard any of the creators talki...

Have you heard any of the creators talking about Free Will?

posted 8 years ago by knoxfan2008
8 replies | jump to latest

I always thought this film was about how humans have no free will, and that with only a few hours of testing, we can get all our actions down to an extremely easy to predict formula. Similar to Sam Harris's book "free will". We don't have it, and the concept itself is false. Our free will is merely the interaction of chemicals in our brains telling us what to do, and we misinterpret that as us making the decision.

But I never hear anyone bring that up about this film.

[–] gottaluvafriend 8 years ago

I don't think the writer of this story was thinking that but I might be wrong.

[–] thulk01 7 years ago

Interesting idea but I think it might be too much of a stretch. The situations were so provocative that he was fairly limited in how he would react to them. If I set your house on fire while you're inside, and I predict that you'll run outside, and then you do as I predicted, does that mean you don't have free will? No, it just means I specifically designed a scenario that would lead to an extremely high probability of you choosing a certain action.

Also, the game's actors were with him at times and guiding him to act in certain ways.

And finally, the game didn't seem like it was written in a completely unchangeable way, and that it had some leeway to shift based on how he acted. Actually, this is how I think the universe itself functions (things are already laid out for the most part, but can be "shifted" due to huge shifts in how you exercise your free will - for example, in the case of me setting your house on fire, if you decide you just have to rescue some heirloom that I wasn't aware of, and you end up dying instead of escaping like I had planned for you to do).

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

"The situations were so provocative that he was fairly limited in how he would react to them. "

Really? Was it really limited when he broke the mirror? HOW could anyone have predicted that happening, just based on some 'psychological profile'? Heck, it wasn't even his intention, it wasn't part of his free will.

There's -no-way- anyone could predict an accident, where someone accidentally drops something on the floor and that something breaks. That can happen to anyone, and it can also "not-happen" to anyone. To predict when and to whom it will happen, well.. you'd have to be an actual psychic.

[–] Maniac_In_Black 7 years ago

I actually have that book bySam Harris .. Free Will. a friend had let me borrow it but ive never read it. Anyway, really enjoyed this movie.

[–] Maniac_In_Black 7 years ago

.. also, ill have to watch it again with the commentary to see if anyone mentions free will and will get back to this post if they do.

[–] Maniac_In_Black 7 years ago

So on commentary, they mention how throughout the movie (after the game starts) Michaels character has no choice and is told (not directly) where to go next. For example, the parking garage scene after everyone runs off the elevator opens and that's Michael's que to go in that direction.(without knowing that's where hes supposed to go)

[–] snelling 7 years ago

You sound, talk and write like you have almost no education and did not really watch the entire movie while paying full attention, with or without commentary. Try again. Also, read some of the more insightful posts on here that know what is going on within the story.

"'Extremely High Voltage.' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer SimpsonzzzzzzzzouchZZZZZZ--" - Frank Grimes

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

"You sound, talk and write like you have almost no education "

You write almost as if you think education equals intelligence, experience, wisdom or good grammar. It doesn't.

Education is conditioning and brainwashing, indoctrination at its finest. It has nothing to do with someone's intelligence or lack thereof.

You can learn things yourself, without the need for some institution's systematic and inefficient, political agenda-colored methods. When you are interested in something, you almost automatically practically devour all the information about that something you can get.

Learning based on natural curiosity is 'actual learning', where 'education', which you seem to worship, consists of memorizing untrue facts until the test, and then forgetting them forever.

Now, having 'no education' is certainly a blessing and a good thing. I am free of 'education', but I do have information, knowledge, skill, ability and I would almost dare say some wisdom as well.

You don't need 'education' to have any of these things. In fact, the less you are 'educated', the more interesting, fun, unique and free personality you usually have, free from dogma and pre-chewed opinions, responses and knee-jerk reactions.

Let's be free, let's not be 'educated'.