MovieChat Forums > Jupiter Ascending (2015) Discussion > So they present a notion of the galaxy r...

So they present a notion of the galaxy ruled by some kind of feudal


system, in which everything is property of the monarchs and whole worlds are wasted to extend the lifespan of a few aristocrats. Then they have the villain describe his view of his entitlement as evolution 'in the service of profit'.

There is no profit in wiping out whole populations so a few people live longer. Nobody becomes richer by this process - even the aristocrats lose wealth as they eliminate the planets they own one by one. (Not to mention how stupid it is to eliminate a population rather than sustain it to draw from on an ongoing basis.) It's clear in the movie that the resources spent on this practice are enormous, and there's no productive payoff whatsoever.

Free markets, and the so-called profit motive, are antithetical to feudalism. You can make an anti-capitalist message if you want, but to try to represent capitalism using feudal systems and hierarchies is just stupid.

Just one of many ways this movie is badly written. Again and again it offers ideas that are clearly not understood by the writers. 'Bees respond to royalty', etc. Utterly stupid. It's like someone 12 years old wrote this thinking they understand things they really, really don't.

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Maybe it's really talking about Vladimir Putin's BFF, Donald Trump.

Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.

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The thing I had the most problem with was their base in Jupiter's atmosphere. Beyond stupid! Was about as stupid as that base the bad guys had on that volcanic planet in Star Wars, The Revenge of the Sith. Something like that (either) would require tremendous energy and resources to sustain just to resist the constant onslaught of the elements (unrelenting heat on the volcanic planet, crushing gravity with Jupiter). Why build bases in such inhospitable places, just to prove you can? Stupid. In both cases as soon as something fairly minor happens the shields they need to survive drop and the bases crumble into the elements post haste. Ridiculous.

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That isn't entirely what was going on in this film. I will agree that the Wachowski's ability to use actual science is not one of their strong suits, but they do get points for creativity. This film typically goes into the genre of "space opera," rather than hard-core science fiction. Space Operas tend to focus more on action and drama in space, rather than trying to make sense of the advanced technology and space travel. It's easier to look at the symbolism the story tells.

From what Caine and his buddy tell Jupiter, it appears Humanity as a species is MUCH older than what we think on earth, so they managed to travel through space and colonize planets much earlier. As we saw, the real homeworld of humanity is badly over-crowded, with space stations, artificial space station rings, and even the moons have been colonized. That, and I have no doubt that there are many, many more colonies across the galaxy inhabited by these advanced humans. It seems that this futuristic society is very mixed, with some living in a mixed free-trade economy, there's a sprawling bureaucracy, and some humans live in space frontier societies. There might even be space nomads out there.

The Abrasax Family does not own all the planets that have humans living on them. In fact, it would be illegal to "harvest" planets they don't own for Regenex. However, if you watch the credits, it shows just about every single planet the family does own that unsuspecting, less-advanced humans live on, and there are a LOT of them.

Therefore, it appears that the advanced human society in space has laws that are much more relaxed than ours when it comes to some humans being more equal than others. In fact, the rich elite among these advanced humans has no issue with the horrendous way Regenex is made, because they'll pay/do anything to stay young and extend their lifespans indefinitely, including sacrificing innocent humans along the way.

In the case of space feudalism, I think it would only extend to Entitled people like the Abrasax Family and any planet they actually ruled instead of harvested, and I sincerely doubt they're the only royal family out there in the galaxy. The people working at the real human homeworld didn't act like the Abrasax family were truly special beyond having more wealth, assets, and bodyguards.

The only planets that would really adhere to local laws the Abrasax family members (such as Kalique) would create, were actual planets they lived on and ruled as actual leaders. As we saw, it seems only Kalique was interested in actual ruling and governing, rather than splurging her wealth out in the cosmos like Titus did, or living far away from any kingdom like Balem.

Still, it is fascinating that not only does the family have a royal title that goes back millennia, but that they still adhere to capitalism by owning a company that has a monopoly on a substance that's often treated as currency in that particular space economy.

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Very well put. :)

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No.

Think of a planet as a farm, only on a much larger scale. A farmer owns many farms/fields and harvests them every time the crop is ripe. That does make him richer and doesn't deprive him of future earnings just because the farm becomes (temporarily) barren when harvested - it simply gets replanted and used again seasonally. Similarly, once harvested, the planet is re-populated so it can be harvested again in the future. The only difference is the time scale.

Regenex wasn't used just by the 3 siblings. Obviously, there would be a HUGE market for it galaxy-wide and based on the dialogue, most of the stuff sold wasn't as pure (and potent) as the batch the siblings had. So they'd definitely be making insane amounts of money from their investment / assets every time they did a harvest.

If anything, I would have thought that it'd be easier to just have a whole bunch of clones grown artificially on multiple locations for the sole purpose of harvesting their bodies when they were ripe enough - a process that would be controlled, less messy & chaotic and perhaps easier & faster to do than to deal with all the possible problems of abducting people from Earth for the same reason.

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Maybe they were just high while writing the 'script'...

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