Next

Next is a movie about a man (Nicholas Cage) with the ability to see two minutes into the future. However, the movie makes clear that his ability to see the future changes what happens in the future itself. The way that the movie presents this effect, however, is very interesting. For example, there is a scene in a casino where he predicts the future--someone will rob the cashier. However, the movie is directed in such a way that his vision is portrayed as if it is actually happening Then when this alternative reality (the future) has been shown, the movie snaps back in time to the present. From here, he makes the decision of what to do next and "reality" plays out accordingly. By portraying his visions like this, the viewer becomes unsure of what might actually be reality and what is the future, the vision. Some could argue that even though this movie could be played out in a rational order, this movie is a very good representation of a time-image. The rational order could be argued because it is showing the vision which he is seeing spliced between the two moments of reality. Yet paradoxically, the fact that these visions are those of the future and are indistinguishable from actual reality (until the scene snaps back to reality and plays over again in a different way) begs for the film to be deemed a time-image. When this first happened, I was actually quite surprised and caught off guard because I thought the future vision was the reality. In this temporal sense, this movie manipulates the viewer really well, adding to the overall excitement of the experience.