Remember all of two weeks ago when Neill Blomkamp (“District 9,” “Elysium,” “Chappie”) and his newly-founded Oats Studios debuted his dystopic short film “Rakka” starring Sigourney Weaver? If not, you should check that out here. It shouldn’t take long, what with “Rakka’s” just-over-twenty-minute runtime, so I’ll wait.
Okay, now that we are all up to speed, there is something even newer from Blomkamp’s camp that you ought to give a look: “Firebase.”
“Firebase” is another short film that fits firmly within Blomkamp’s wheelhouse of action-packed science fiction. The short takes place during the Vietnam War, which means guns, explosions, and intrigue. While the setting may not sound particularly sci-fi in and of itself, rest assured, Blomkamp has brought his usual affinities for the futuristic and the strange. In the film, we follow an American soldier, Hines, as he navigates both wartime Vietnam and the simulation hypothesis. Oh, you say you haven’t heard of the simulation hypothesis? Well, lucky you because, in an interview The Verge, Blomkamp explains what it’s all about.
“The theory behind [the simulation hypothesis] was born out of the idea that we exist in a simulated construct, where there are errors or anomalies. If you think of the universe as a piece of software, then there would be this self-correcting code that would come in and fix the erroneous code,” he said. “[For ‘Firebase’] we came up with the idea of someone who accidentally breaks through the program and is able to see and understand that there’s more to reality than the level they exist in. We wanted someone who could play with the laws of thermodynamics, time, and space.”
If manipulating the laws of thermodynamics doesn’t sell you on the science fiction and general awesomeness of “Firebase,” then I don’t know what will. I don’t want to give away too much here, so you should probably just watch the short film. It’s free, after all.
If you’re wondering what’s coming next from Oats Studios, Blomkamp revealed that he’s got a slightly-long short film on deck. It’s called “Zygote” and it stars Dakota Fanning. Sign me up.