Alex Proyas
Screenplay by Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer, from a story by Alex Proyas
Rufus Sewell (Murdoch)
William Hurt (Inspector Bumstead)
Kiefer Sutherland (Dr. Schreber)
Jennifer Connelly (Emma)
 |
||
 |
||
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
Schreber City: paranoid schizophrenia in Dark City
In the film, actor Kiefer Sutherland plays psychiatrist Daniel Schreber. It's a clue to one of the most important sources of inspiration for the film. The real-life Daniel Schreber had plenty of experience with psychiatrists. He struggled with mental illness for years. Famed psychoanalyst Freud wrote about the turn-of-the-century figure in a book. He wasn't the only one; Schreber described his ailments vividly in his 1903 Memoirs of My Nervous Illness.
| Schreber's Memoirs | Dark City |
| "a conspiracy may have arisen...to the detriment of the Schreber race." | Murdoch is the target of a conspiracy. |
| "wandering clocks, that is to say souls of departed heretics..." | Clocks are a key symbol. |
| "in me he [Schreber's psychiatrist Flechsig] was dealing with a human being of high intellect" | Psychiatrist Schreber is dealing with Murdoch, a human being with superior mental powers. |
| Aliens are attracted to what's inside Schreber's head. | Aliens are attracted to what's inside Murdoch's head. |
| "'scorpions' were repeatedly put into my head, tiny crab- or spider-like structures." | Weird, tentacled creatures exist inside the Strangers' heads. |
| "the concept of soul murder...to take possession of another person's soul in order to prolong one's life at another soul's expense, or to secure some other advantages that outlast death." | The Strangers plan to take possession of Murdoch's soul in order to live. |
| "the inner table of my skull was lined with a different brain membrane in order to extinguish my memory of my own ego." | The Strangers mess with people's brains in order to extinguish their memories of their own identities. |
| "I was cast in several roles consecutively: a 'Hyperborian woman,' a 'Jesuit Novice in Ossegg,' a 'Burgomaster of Klattau,' 'an Alsatian girl who had to defend her honour against a victorious French officer,' and finally 'a Mongolian Prince.'" | Dark City-dwellers play different roles consecutively after their memories are switched around. |
| "One day--in bright daylight--I saw from my window directly in front of the walls of the building where I lived, a magnificient portico arise, just as if the whole building were going to be transformed into a fairy palace." | The Strangers' machine allows them to transform whole buildings. |
| "It was as if single nights had the durations of centuries." | Murdoch points out that night lasts forever in Dark City. |
| Schreber fears his mind is being warped by his psychiatrist Flechsig. | Murdoch fears his mind will be warped by his psychiatrist Schreber. |
| "I pondered over such possibilities as that the whole of Flechsig's Asylum or perhaps the city of Leipzig with it had been "dug out" and moved to some other celestial body." | Bingo! |
| "In this process [transmigration of souls] the human souls concerned were called to a new human life on other planets, presumably by being born in the manner of a human being, perhaps retaining some dim memory of their earlier existence." | Human beings live a new life out in space, but don't retain memories their earlier existence. |
| "mankind and all its activities have only been artificially maintained..." | Dark City-dwellers are artificially maintained. |
| "I had to solve one of the most intricate problems ever set of man and that I had to fight a sacred battle for the greatest good of mankind." | Murdoch must fight a battle of good and evil for humans. |
| "I gained the conviction that soul murder had been attempted on me by somebody, albeit unsuccessfully." | The Strangers' plan to take possession of Murdoch's soul is unsuccessful. |
| "I can produce pictures ... of persons, animals and plants... so that these images become visible either inside my head or if I wish, outside." | Murdoch's mental powers enable him to rearrange matter to produce the sun, the ocean, the beach. |