Infinity Chamber is an excellent Science-Fiction Thriller set in a futuristic dystopian world, yet all we see of it is a sparse automated prison cell and the simulation of quaint coffee shop in the main character's mind. The viewer is dropped into the story not knowing anything about the main character or the world, and the movie slowly doles out details piece meal. For most of the film all we really know is that Frank Lerner, played perfectly by Christopher Soren Kelly, is an intelligent man (perhaps a tech expert) that was kidnapped/arrested by an authoritarian regime. He may or may not be an innocent person arrested due to mistaken identity, a criminal, or an important member of the resistance. His only companion in the cell is the voice of Howard (Jesse D. Arrow) behind a camera, who's in charge of keeping Frank alive, and Gabby (played adequately by Cassandra Clarke) who is the owner of a cafe that exists in his mind.
Here is where the best and the worst parts of the movie come into play. On one side of the Infinity Chamber is a device that hypnotizes the prisoner, putting him into a simulation of the last day of his life before he was arrested, where the computer looks for something it thinks he is hiding. I really enjoyed the mind bending series of events that this device created, where throughout the film the viewer and the character begin to lose their grasp on reality. However, it's also where the film gets a little boring and repetitive, as Frank relives these moments over and over with only (for the most part) solitary prison scenes to break them up. There are many interesting moments within these scenes, but I can definitely see why some people might lose interest before the climax of the film. Still, I found myself absolutely enthralled with the movie, and I really enjoyed the crooked web the story weaved.
Now, I have one other thing I wanted to talk about before finishing this review, but I can't do that without spoiling the tricky ending. If you want to see my spoiler free video review, that's over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYpgQ5dhLCg
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So obviously spoilers ahead, but here's how I took the ending of the film. I really liked the ending where he feels like he knows the girl in the cafe, but in reality he only knows her from all of the simulations, where part of his mind was portraying her. It's a cool ending, but then after he reveals the location of the flash drive with the virus behind the picture and throws it out, the camera pans out revealing what looks like the camera (Howard) from the cell on the ceiling of the cafe. I believe that the viewer is supposed to think from that is this was just another simulation, that he wasn't free, that this time he let his guard down and told the machine where he hid the virus. That's another interesting, although more depressing ending. However, that doesn't quite work because every other simulation only took place during one day, and the guy was always able to ascertain that it was a simulation. It's tough to tell, but it seems like it's at least been multiple days of completely new experiences that the Infinity Chamber and his mind would have had to create. Also, that might not be the same camera as the one in the chamber, it could just be a camera.
This is where the comparison to the movie Inception could come in, as the movie ends without showing the viewer whether the top keeps spinning or falls down, and in Infinity Chamber the viewer isn't shown whether the camera has a red light and is the same as the one in the cell or if it's completely dead. So I'm not 100% sure how we're supposed to take it, but I think that it was on purpose, and there's more than one way to view the end. Personally for my Mind Canon I'm going to say that it was just a random camera installed by the authoritarian regime, and that Frank really is free, but I think that the creator of the film probably intended the opposite. Still I really enjoyed Infinity Chamber and would recommend it.
Here is where the best and the worst parts of the movie come into play. On one side of the Infinity Chamber is a device that hypnotizes the prisoner, putting him into a simulation of the last day of his life before he was arrested, where the computer looks for something it thinks he is hiding. I really enjoyed the mind bending series of events that this device created, where throughout the film the viewer and the character begin to lose their grasp on reality. However, it's also where the film gets a little boring and repetitive, as Frank relives these moments over and over with only (for the most part) solitary prison scenes to break them up. There are many interesting moments within these scenes, but I can definitely see why some people might lose interest before the climax of the film. Still, I found myself absolutely enthralled with the movie, and I really enjoyed the crooked web the story weaved.
Now, I have one other thing I wanted to talk about before finishing this review, but I can't do that without spoiling the tricky ending. If you want to see my spoiler free video review, that's over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYpgQ5dhLCg
------ SPOILERS ------
So obviously spoilers ahead, but here's how I took the ending of the film. I really liked the ending where he feels like he knows the girl in the cafe, but in reality he only knows her from all of the simulations, where part of his mind was portraying her. It's a cool ending, but then after he reveals the location of the flash drive with the virus behind the picture and throws it out, the camera pans out revealing what looks like the camera (Howard) from the cell on the ceiling of the cafe. I believe that the viewer is supposed to think from that is this was just another simulation, that he wasn't free, that this time he let his guard down and told the machine where he hid the virus. That's another interesting, although more depressing ending. However, that doesn't quite work because every other simulation only took place during one day, and the guy was always able to ascertain that it was a simulation. It's tough to tell, but it seems like it's at least been multiple days of completely new experiences that the Infinity Chamber and his mind would have had to create. Also, that might not be the same camera as the one in the chamber, it could just be a camera.
This is where the comparison to the movie Inception could come in, as the movie ends without showing the viewer whether the top keeps spinning or falls down, and in Infinity Chamber the viewer isn't shown whether the camera has a red light and is the same as the one in the cell or if it's completely dead. So I'm not 100% sure how we're supposed to take it, but I think that it was on purpose, and there's more than one way to view the end. Personally for my Mind Canon I'm going to say that it was just a random camera installed by the authoritarian regime, and that Frank really is free, but I think that the creator of the film probably intended the opposite. Still I really enjoyed Infinity Chamber and would recommend it.