Name:____________________________________________

The Final Cut

Starring Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino, and Jim Caviezel.
Written and directed by Omar Naim.

THE PLOT: Welcome to the not-too-distant future, where implanted microchips record every single
moment of a person's life. Upon death, it becomes the job of a "cutter" to edit down the deceased's
entire lifetime into a fitting memorial film, or a Rememory. For years, Alan Hakman has used his god-
like power of final cut to absolve the dead of a multitude of sins. But when, on his latest assignment,
he views a terrible secret that can't be erased, Hakman finds his own life in jeopardy in this riveting,
science-fiction based drama.

THE ASSIGNMENT: The following passages selected from the screenplay illustrate a theme from
the film. These themes include everything from memorizing the dead to a person’s right to privacy,
from punishing illegal and/or immoral behavior to the need for free speech. First, you will select one
of these quotes. Second, you will write a short (300-500 words) analysis of the themes importance
within the film. Subsequently, you will write an opinion editorial on that same theme that your quote
illustrates (this paper will explore the contemporary importance of the theme). Finally, you will take a
staged photograph that illustrates your written work. This assignment will cumulate with your
creating a display that includes the quote, your analysis of the quote, your opinion-editorial, and your
photograph.

THE QUOTES:

“The Cutter's Code:

1. A Cutter cannot sell or give away Zoe footage.
2. A cutter cannot have a Zoe implant.
3. A Cutter cannot mix Zoe footage from different lives for a Rememory.” –The moral
code agreed upon by all Cutters

"Don't do that. We're not even supposed to be here." – Louis, on entering the factory and seeing
Alan etch his name into the paint covered window.

"Scene 127-Q deleted." Alan deletes the particular memory of Danny Monroe's, wherein he
beats his wife.

"This girl was a complete wreck. Drinking, drugs, in and out of schools. Then she turns 21 and
she finds out about her Zoe implant. Complete 180. She's born again. Her knowing that someone
would one day watch transforms her into this kind, gentle, loving person. " Hasan tells the story
of a girl who ultimately commits suicide.

" 'It is not our place to see through other's eyes. That is for God and God alone.' " from Anti-zoe
propaganda flyer.

1 Individual in Conflict Easton 2009

"I mean, you get to see life upon life. Most of us get only one, if that. What are people's lives like?
Do they make any sense? It all seems so massive and so random." Delila, asking Alan about his
work when she visits his home and sees his "work" for the first time.

" 'How do you do this?'

'It was what I was meant to do.'
'You were meant to live your own life too.' " Delila and Alan talking about his work
while at his house, together and alone, for the first time.

"Remember for yourself! Live for today!" Anti-implant, anti-zoe protestors outside of Daniel
Monroe's Rememory

"What did you want to be then?

'A doctor.'
'A doctor, eh? Cleaver kid. That'll keep you in the bucks. Why a doctor?'
'Because I want to help people when they're hurt.'
'Would you listen to this little kid? You got a good heart, Danny. And that's all you need
in life. Now come on. Be a good boy and eat your lunch.' "
--Danny speaking with his Uncle when he was a young boy.

"Maybe it was green." Alan Hackman, talking to Danny's brother about the color of his father's
boat.

"It's unbelievable, when you think of it. One of twenty of these people has an implant. How will
that baby remember her mother years from now. Will he remember the special moments between
them, or moments someone like you decides are special?"
"My job is to help people remember what they want to remember, Fletcher."
"Ah. Oh, that's noble. But I don't think you understand the scope of the damage. Thee is
no way to measure the profound effect the Zoe implant has had on the way people relate to each
other. 'Am I being filmed? Should I say this or not? What'll they think in 30 years if I do this or
that?' What about the simple right not to be photographed? The right not to pop up in some guy's
Rememory without even knowing you were being filmed?" –Alan tells Fletcher that he will not
give him the Bannister project.

"Do you know what a sin-eater is? It's part of an ancient tradition. When someone would
die, they would call for a sin eater. Sin eaters were social outcasts, marginals. They would lay
out the body, put bread and salt on the chest, coins upon the eyes. The sin eater would eat the
bread and salt, take the coins as payment. By doing this, the eater absorbed the sins of the
deceased, cleansing their soul and allowing them safe passage into the afterlife. That was their
job.
And what about the sin eater who bears the burdon of all those wrongs?" –Ditto

"You've seen so much life and somehow you still miss the point. … You have to separate
yourself from that machine." Dalila, to Alan, after he discovers that Louis is possibly alive.

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"Family. Career. Community. That's all I want. Cut everything else." Mrs. Bannister, talking to
Alan Hakman about his work on her husband's rememroy.

"He'll forget. But make sure you don't." Alan Hakman talking to Isabel Bannister about what her
father will forget or remember via Alan's work on the Rememory.

"Some implants have a defect. That can't differentiate between what the eye sees and what the
mind sees. … Dreams. Daydreams. Halluscianations." –Alan Haker explains to Delila how
dreams show up within the zoe implant.

"That was my old boyfriend, you bastard. Is that why you wanted to be with me? Because you
saw some proof that I'm to your liking? These moments, they belong to me, Alan. The good and
the bad. They're mine and his! Who are you to take them away from me?" –Delila, after
discovering that Alan was the cutter who edited her dead boyfriend's Rememory.

"One memory, one single incident has made me who I am. It leave me be. The guilt tears me
apart but now I got a chance to find out the truth. I have to take it." –Alan, trying to convince his
friends to help him access his zoe memory chip.

"Perhaps some things are best forgotten."

"Perhaps" –Mrs. Bannister and Alan talk about the "accident" that destroys her husband's Zoe
implant while her daughter Isabella listens on.

"Louis Hunt: Always in Our Memories" –Epitaph engraved on Hunt's tombstone.

"It's for the greater good, Alan. Your life will mean something. I promise." –Fletcher, on
watching footage from Alan's Zoe implant.

3 Individual in Conflict Easton 2009