EXTRACTED (2012)

Studio:       Phase 4 Films
Director:    Nir Paniry
Writer:       Nir Paniry, Gabriel Cowan, John Suits
Producer:  Gabriel Cowan, John Suits
Stars:     Sasha Roiz, Dominic Bogart, Jenny Mollen, Frank Ashmore, Nick Jameson, Richard Riehle

Review Score: 

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Summary:

A scientist is forced to solve a murder when his consciousness becomes trapped inside the mind of an accused killer. 

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Tom Jacobs watches a memory of Anthony shooting his girlfriend Adrienne. Tom thinks back to a time when he told his wife Abbey that an investor had finally been found for his work. His representative Richard tells Tom that the prospective client wants to use his invention to enter another person’s memories. Although it is against his intended use for the device, Tom agrees to a demonstration for the client because his new family needs the investment money. Tom and his programmer Garrett hire a woman named Minnie to provide the voice used while inside the device. It is revealed that Tom has been trapped inside of Anthony’s memories for over four years.

The investor insists on an accelerated timeline for the demonstration. Tom learns that the investor is Arthur Kinison from the Department of Corrections. Arthur’s idea is to enter the memories of an accused man to see if he committed the crime. The test subject is Anthony Willis, a junkie accused of killing his girlfriend during a drug-induced blackout. An anonymous tip led the police to Anthony and the recovery of the murder weapon.

A microchip enters Tom’s bloodstream that enables him to connect to Anthony’s memories. Tom goes into Anthony’s memory from the night of the murder and watches him shoot Adrienne. Afterwards, Tom is unable to exit, despite initiating the microchip self-destruct sequence. In the real world, Tom enters a coma while his consciousness continues to relive Anthony’s memories.

In prison, Anthony is given a box of photographs from his ex-convict father, Martino. Martino is insistent upon his heroin addicted son getting clean, just as he did during his time in the joint.

Tom continually relives the memory of Anthony as a boy trying to train a dog named Rex while his father fixes a car in the garage. During one of the memory cycles, Tom thinks he sees young Anthony looking at him. In the short-term memory, Tom sees that Anthony was looking at a photograph of the dog at the time he appeared to see Tom in the other memory. Tom then appears to Anthony in a short-term memory inside of his cell. A memory of Anthony in a therapy session with Father Riley leads to another memory of Anthony trying to rob his own father while accompanied by a dealer named Derek Lowe. His father foiled the attempt. Anthony relives that day often. Tom begins to wait in that location in hopes that Anthony will see him again.

Anthony eventually sees Tom. Tom asks Anthony to deliver a message to Tom’s wife Abbey. Initially, Abbey does not believe the story, but a visit to the prison with her daughter Donna convinces her that Tom’s consciousness is inside Anthony’s memories.

Tom realizes that he upgraded the device’s microchip to monocrystalline, but he did not recalibrate the reader to look for non-metallic components. That is why the chip did not self-destruct properly. In order to extract Tom from Anthony’s mind, Abbey agrees to sign over rights to the device to Arthur so that he will allow Anthony to be released for the extraction procedure. In the meantime, Tom and Anthony change their regular meeting place to a happier memory of Anthony watching his girlfriend swim in a pool.

Anthony is transferred to Arthur’s ranch where he is handcuffed and supervised by two guards. Martino reminds his son that Anthony called him the night of the murder and that it was Martino who initially covered up his son’s involvement. Believing he is innocent, Anthony tells Tom that he wants him to go back to the night of the murder and look for something the cops may have missed. They eventually discover that an assailant knocked out Anthony while he was at the crime scene. As more pieces are revealed, Anthony begins remembering more details. Derek is ultimately revealed as the person who knocked out Anthony, but they do not connect him to Adrienne’s murder.

In the real world, Anthony knocks out Garrett and unlocks his handcuffs while the guards are outside. Anthony escapes the ranch and goes to see Derek. Anthony learns that Adrienne broke up with Anthony because she felt guilty about trading sex for drugs in a deal with Derek. Anthony is confronted by a second junkie and Derek shoots Anthony in the stomach.

Anthony runs away, but continues bleeding profusely. Communicating in his mind with Tom, Anthony makes his way to Abbey, who uses the device prototype to extract Tom before Anthony dies.

Back in reality, Tom visits Martino and learns that the memory of training a misbehaving dog was false. Martino points out that if someone is told something enough times, he will eventually believe it to be true. Tom matches handwriting on a photograph to the anonymous tip received by the police and confronts Martino about turning in his son. Tom eventually learns that Adrienne killed herself out of guilt but between his father and the police interrogation, Anthony came to believe that he killed her.

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Review:

“Extracted” is a prime example of how to construct an intelligent science-fiction film by working scope and budgetary limitations into the story’s design.  “Extracted” is extraordinary not only in how it manages to turns restrictions into advantages, but in how it crafts a tale of conflict and intrigue without introducing a true villain or placing characters firmly on one side of the good and evil line.

Tom is a passionate scientist whose breakthrough research into brain activity has led to a device that allows its user to relive his/her memories.  Tom has philanthropic intentions for his device, hoping it can help trauma victims cope with their past.  His investor has a different idea.  At the end of his financial rope, and with a new family to support, Tom bends his ideals to accommodate a secondary use for law enforcement.  Tom is to enter the memory of an accused criminal to confirm that the man did in fact commit the crime.  But when Tom’s consciousness ends up trapped inside the convict’s mind, he is forced to relive the man’s memories until he uncovers the truth that led to the accused murderer’s imprisonment.

The brilliance of the science-fiction in “Extracted” is that its sole purpose is servitude to the story.  Immersion in its atmosphere is not dependent upon special effects or scenes featuring flying cars and future technology.  It is intentionally simpler than that.  “Extracted” takes place in a future so near that it could very well take place today and it is grounded on a plane where highlighting the science is secondary to depicting the human drama driving the story.

Limited by budget and sparsely dressed sets, the tight production is a boon to the film as it aids in the expression of solitary confinement inside the subject’s mind.  Independent sci-fi films can get ahead of themselves when ambition far surpasses available resources, but “Extraction” never breaks off more than it can handle.  The setting remains believable throughout without being too fantastical, and the overall design suits the plot’s purposes perfectly.

“Extracted” is populated by a bevy of “that guys,” all of whom are deserving of wider recognition for their talents.  Each actor on the roster plays a multi-faceted person with complicated convictions and compromised values.  Leading the cast is Sasha Roiz, known for roles on “Warehouse 13,” “Grimm,” and the short-lived “Battlestar Galactica” spinoff “Caprica.”  Playing his business representative is Nick Jameon, familiar as Russian President Yuri Suvarov on TV’s “24.”  Witnessing the two men exchange dialogue about the realities of investment versus the altruistic motivations behind science highlights the deeper personalities that each actor brings to his character.

Not to be overlooked are Dominic Bogart as the accused murder and Frank Ashmore, recently seen as Carl Drybeck in “Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes,” as his ex-con father.  They complete the full slate of fully developed personas that could have been wax figures in a less careful film, but who rise above stereotyped characteristics and purposes in “Extracted.”  Richard Riehle and his recognizable mustache also stop by for a quick scene.

At just over 80 minutes, “Extracted” runs precisely the right length for a brisk mystery with filling doses of sci-fi intrigue and meaningful suspense.  One distraction in the otherwise well-produced thriller is excessive handheld camera work that fails to add texture in scenes where it is over-employed.  That aside, nearly every piece of the movie fits into a tautly framed puzzle picture poised to satisfy genre fans.  In the vein of “Primer” and “Timecrimes,” “Extracted” is a showcase for smart sci-fi that does not need CGI fireworks or additional zeros in the production budget to be a thoroughly gripping film.

Review Score:  85

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