Cloud Atlas FAQ - Post your Questions

Feel free to post your own questions. I've noticed that in the forums there are a lot of questions and they don't always get answered very well. For each question I have written an answer which hopefully is unbiased and supported by the film and book, and an extra paragraph which adds my opinion upon the topic of the question.

1) Why is this movie called Cloud Atlas?

The 'Cloud Atlas' is a metaphor for understanding the constantly changing and seemingly in-explainable nature of the world. I can't recall if the line is ever mentioned in the movie, but in the book, Timothy Cavendish refers to a 'cloud atlas' directly, reflecting on the times of happiness in his life and how he longed to know how to find those 'Joyous Isles' again. The quote is here: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/243641-three-or-four-times-only-in-my-youth-did-i

In my opinion, it's a nice title that sums up the philosophy of the book/film, but it's a little abstract and mentioned only once or twice in passing.

2) How do the stories connect?

I'll start with my own opinion: The stories ARE connected, but they're connected in a way that can be quite tenuous at times. So it's not exactly the epic about life that some people claim it is, but it's not the disorganized mess that others say it is either. If you take the time to read between the lines there are some interesting implications, but never a single strong thread holding it all together.

The stories have some direct connections: Frobisher reads the poisoned sailor's diary. Luisa meets Sixsmith, and also reads Frobisher's letters to him. Timothy Cavendish is reading the book about Luisa's expose as it has been given to him as a publisher for consideration. Yoona, Sonmi's friend, finds a clip of the movie adaption of Timothy's life, which inspires her to stand up against the abusive customers at the restaurant. Finally, Sonmi's speech survives as what almost seems to be the equivalent of the bible for the post-apocalyptic tribe, and she is revered as a god.

The stories have some thematic connections: They all focus, whether directly or on the side, on some form of discrimination and an attempt to fight against it. Black slave labour, homosexuality, sexism, perception of age, and inferiority of clones. Note that I haven't yet mentioned the post-apocalyptic story. In each thread, these prejudices are in some way challenged, in some even sparking revolutionary movements. Finally, the post-apocalyptic story is almost like an after-thought to finish the cycle, where the white people have regressed while the people of color have advanced technologically and culturally. In this way, it attempts to show how eventually the world rights such wrongs, but can overtip the scale, in an endless seesaw of discrimination and revolution.

The stories have a connection in the universe they paint: This is a bit of a more interesting link, and you have to read in between the lines a little bit. The first four stories aren't of much interest since they only document the past and present. The last two, however, are an interesting bit of environmental commentary. Neo Seoul shows how the human race had advanced so far, with technological marvels - however, it's mentioned offhand that environmentally the world is not doing so well, when Hae-Joo shows Sonmi the city of Old Neo Seoul which is almost submerged due to rising sea levels, no doubt caused by humans and the level of scientific advancement they had reached. Finally, 'The Fall' which is mentioned in the post-apocalyptic story is implied to be some sort of complete environmental/technological collapse, again caused by humans. Either some kind of disaster, like Hiroshima on a large scale, or simply a point where resources were exhausted, and after realizing they couldn't sustain the current lifestyle, regressed to a sort of tribal living, either by will or by force after there was no other choice. Notably, it's implied that third-world countries were not affected by 'The Fall', and were left to continue developing normally as first world countries had done centuries earlier, hence why the Prescients were all of seemingly African descent.

3) What's the point of the film? What's the message?

The answer to this question can only be opinion, so here's mine - the message is nothing as neat or as grand as 'everything is connected'. It's similar to that statement, but on a much smaller, and perhaps, in fact, more thoughtful scale.

I think the film is about the repercussions of every individual's actions upon the future of the race as a whole. They illustrate this in all kinds of scales, from Luisa's expose to Adam burning the slave trade deal, to Sonmi's speech becoming the religion of the future. Notably, however, each of these actions that were deemed of importance were against the 'norm' or the standard that people were expected and pressured to meet. I think it's conveying a message about revolution, whether a tiny victory or the creation of history - every action you take is one action closer towards a better world. This philosophy is summed up in the closing lines of the film, where Tilda's father accuses Adam of madness, saying that his efforts in the slave abolishing movement will never amount to more than a drop in a limitless ocean, to which he replies that an ocean is nothing but a multitude of drops. This is the closing line of the book, as well, and it's kept true in the film word to word for a good reason - it is saying that while an individual's actions will be small, many individual actions can cause a ripple and change the direction of the world.

4) Submit your own questions, and I'll answer here in the original post!