Cloud Atlas is a 2012 science fiction film written and directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. Based on the 2004 novel by David Mitchell, it has multiple plots occurring during six eras and features an ensemble cast who perform multiple roles across these time periods.
The film was produced by Grant Hill and Stefan Arndt, in addition to the Wachowskis and Tykwer. During its four years of development, the producers had difficulties securing financial support. It was eventually produced with a budget between US$100 million and US$146.7 million provided by independent sources, making it one of the most expensive independent films ever produced. Filming for Cloud Atlas began in September 2011 at Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany.
It premiered on 8 September 2012 at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival, and was publicly released on 26 October 2012 in conventional and IMAX cinemas. Critics were polarized, causing it to be included on various "Best Film" and "Worst Film" lists. It was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for Tykwer (who co-scored the film), Johnny Klimek, and Reinhold Heil. It received several nominations at the Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film, and won for Best Editing and Best Make-up.
Plot The story jumps between eras, spanning hundreds of years, until each storyline eventually resolves. Communications from characters in prior storylines are found in some of the future storylines, connecting a few of them. Characters appear to recur in each era, but change relationships to each other, suggesting reincarnation or other connection between souls through the ages.
In the Chatham Islands, 1849, American lawyer Adam Ewing is waiting for his transport ship to be repaired. He witnesses the whipping of Autua, an enslaved Moriori man. Autua stows away on Ewing's ship, having noticed Ewing's sympathy, and persuades him to advocate for Autua to join the crew as a free man. Autua saves Ewing's life before the ship's doctor, Henry Goose, can poison Ewing and steal his gold under the guise of treating him for a parasitic worm. In San Francisco, Ewing and his wife Tilda denounce her father's complicity in slavery and leave for New York to join the abolition movement.
In 1936, British composer Robert Frobisher finds work as an amanuensis to aging composer Vyvyan Ayrs, allowing Frobisher to compose his own masterpiece, "The Cloud Atlas Sextet". As the sextet nears completion, Ayrs demands credit for it and threatens to expose Frobisher's bisexuality if he refuses. Frobisher shoots and wounds Ayrs and goes into hiding. Frobisher finishes the sextet and shoots himself before his lover Rufus Sixsmith arrives.
In San Francisco, 1973, journalist Luisa Rey meets Sixsmith, now a nuclear physicist. Sixsmith tips off Rey to a conspiracy to create a catastrophe at a nuclear reactor run by Lloyd Hooks, who secretly promotes oil-energy interests. He is killed by Hooks' hitman, Bill Smoke, before he can give her a report as proof. Scientist Isaac Sachs passes her a copy of Sixsmith's report, but Smoke kills Sachs and then runs Rey's car off a bridge, destroying the report. With help from the plant's head of security, Joe Napier, Rey evades another murder attempt, and Smoke is killed. With another copy of the report from Sixsmith's niece, Rey plans to expose the plot.
In London, 2012, gangster Dermot Hoggins murders a critic after a harsh review of his memoir, generating huge sales. Hoggins's brothers threaten the publisher, the aging Timothy Cavendish, for Hoggins's profits. Timothy's brother, Denholme, tells him to hide at Aurora House, which he heads to while reading a manuscript about Rey. Believing Aurora House is a hotel, Timothy signs in, only to discover he has unwittingly committed himself to a nursing home where all outside contact is prohibited; Denholme reveals that he sent Timothy there as revenge for an affair with his wife. Timothy escapes with three other residents, resumes his relationship with an old flame, and writes a screenplay about his experience.
In Korea in 2144, Sonmi-451 is a "fabricant", a humanoid clone indentured as a fast food server in a dystopian Neo Seoul. She is exposed to ideas of rebellion by another fabricant, Yoona-939, who has obtained a clip of the movie about Cavendish's involuntary institutionalization. After Yoona is killed, Sonmi is rescued by rebel Commander Hae-Joo Chang, who exposes Sonmi to the banned writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the full film version of Cavendish's experience. Eventually, Hae-Joo shows her that fabricants are actually recycled into food that keeps them acquiescent. Sonmi makes a public broadcast of her revelations before the authorities attack, killing Hae-Joo and recapturing Sonmi. After recounting her story to an archivist, she is executed.
In 2321, the tribesmen of a post-apocalyptic Hawaii worship Sonmi, whose recorded testimony is the basis of their sacred text. Zachry Bailey's village is visited by Meronym, a member of an advanced, off-world society called the Prescients, who are dying from a plague. Meronym is searching for a forgotten communication station on Mauna Sol to send an SOS to off-world humans. In exchange for healing Zachry's niece, Catkin, Meronym is guided by Zachry to the station where Sonmi made her recording. Returning home, Zachry finds his tribe slaughtered by the cannibalistic Kona tribe. He kills the sleeping Kona chief and rescues Catkin before he and Meronym fight off the other Kona tribesmen. Zachry and Catkin join Meronym and the Prescients as their ship leaves Big Island. On a distant planet, Zachry is married to Meronym and recounts the story to his grandchildren.
Main cast The protagonist of each story is indicated in bold.
Actor 1849 1936 1973 2012 2144 106 winters after The Fall (2321) Tom Hanks Dr. Henry Goose Hotel Manager Isaac Sachs Dermot Hoggins Cavendish Look-alike Actor Zachry Bailey Halle Berry Native Woman Jocasta Ayrs Luisa Rey Indian Party Guest Ovid Meronym Jim Broadbent Captain Molyneux Vyvyan Ayrs Timothy Cavendish Korean Musician Prescient Jim Sturgess Adam Ewing Poor Hotel Guest Megan's Dad Highlander Hae-Joo Chang Adam (Zachry's Brother-in-Law) Ben Whishaw Cabin Boy Robert Frobisher Record Store Clerk Georgette Cavendish Tribesman Doona Bae Tilda Ewing Megan's Mom, Mexican Woman Sonmi-451, Sonmi-351, Sonmi Prostitute Hugo Weaving Haskell Moore Tadeusz Kesselring Bill Smoke Nurse Noakes Boardman Mephi Old Georgie Hugh Grant Rev. Giles Horrox Hotel Heavy Lloyd Hooks Denholme Cavendish Seer Rhee Kona Chief Susan Sarandon Madame Horrox Older Ursula Yosouf Suleiman Abbess Keith David Kupaka Joe Napier An-kor Apis Prescient James D'Arcy Rufus Sixsmith Dr. Rufus Sixsmith Nurse James Archivist Park Zhou Xun Talbot (Hotel Manager) Yoona-939 Rose David Gyasi Autua Lester Rey Duophysite
Other cast members who appear in more than one segment include Robert Fyfe, Martin Wuttke, Brody Nicholas Lee, Alistair Petrie, and Sylvestra Le Touzel. In addition, author David Mitchell makes a cameo appearance as a double agent in the futuristic Korea section.
Production
Development The film is based on the 2004 novel Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. Filmmaker Tom Tykwer revealed in January 2009 his intent to adapt the novel and said he was working on a screenplay with the Wachowskis, who optioned the novel. By June 2010, Tykwer had asked actors Natalie Portman, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, James McAvoy, and Ian McKellen to star in Cloud Atlas. By April 2011, the Wachowskis joined Tykwer in co-directing the film. In the following May, with Hanks and Berry confirmed in their roles, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, and Jim Broadbent also joined the cast. Actor Hugh Grant joined the cast days before the start of filming, and he was originally supposed to have only five roles, but he asked the Wachowskis for a sixth one and subsequently was also cast as Denholme Cavendish in the 2012 storyline. According to Berry, the character of Ovid she plays in the 2144 storyline was originally meant to be a female character played by Tom Hanks, until the directors felt that Ovid was a logical part of the journey of the soul played by Berry.
It was financed by the German production companies A Company, ARD Degeto Film and X Filme. In May 2011, Variety reported that it had a production budget of . The filmmakers secured approximately $20 million from the German government, including () from the (DFFF), () development funding and () from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, a German funder, as part of their plans to film at Studio Babelsberg later in 2011. The project also received () financial support from Filmstiftung NRW, () from Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, €30 million () from UE-Fonds (the biggest proportion of the budget), and () from FFF Bayern, another German organization. The Wachowskis contributed approximately $7 million to the project out of their own finances. The budget was updated to .
The Wachowskis stated that due to lack of financing, the film was almost abandoned several times. However, they noted how the crew was enthusiastic and determined: "They flew—even though their agents called them and said, 'They don't have the money, the money's not closed. They specifically praised Tom Hanks's enthusiasm: "Warner Bros. calls and, through our agent, says they've looked at the math and decided that they don't like this deal. They're pulling all of the money away, rescinding the offer. I was shaking. I heard, 'Are you saying the movie is dead?' They were like, 'Yes, the movie is dead.' ... At the end of the meeting, Tom says, 'Let's do it. I'm in. When do we start?' ... Tom said this unabashed, enthusiastic 'Yes!' which put our heart back together. We walked away thinking, this movie is dead but somehow, it's alive and we're going to make it." "Every single time, Tom Hanks was the first who said, 'I'm getting on the plane.' And then once he said he was getting on the plane, basically everyone said, 'Well, Tom's on the plane, we're on the plane.' And so everyone flew [to Berlin to begin the film]. It was like this giant leap of faith. From all over the globe."
Some German journalists called it "the first attempt at a German blockbuster".
Cast member Hugh Grant stated about joining the project:
Principal photography Tykwer and the Wachowskis filmed parallel to each other using separate camera crews. Although all three shot scenes together when permitted by the schedule, the Wachowskis mostly directed the 1849 story and the two set in the future, while Tykwer directed the stories set in 1936, 1973, and 2012. Tykwer said that the three directors planned every segment of the film together in pre-production, and continued to work closely together through post-production. Warner Bros. Pictures representatives agreed to the film's 172-minute running time, after previously stating that it should not exceed 150 minutes.Cloud Atlas gets December US release date; test screenings taking place , Filmonic, 17 May 2012
Filming began at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, on 2011, the base camp for the production. Other German locations include the city of Düsseldorf and the Saxon Switzerland landscape, furthermore sets in and near Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland, and the Mediterranean island of Majorca, Spain. Glasgow doubled for both San Francisco and London. Scenes filmed in Scotland feature the new Clackmannanshire Bridge near Alloa. The "Big Island" and "Pacific Islands" stories were shot on Majorca, mostly in the World Heritage site of the Serra de Tramuntana mountains. Scenes were shot at Cala Tuent and near Formentor, amongst others. The opening scene, when Adam Ewing meets Dr. Henry Goose, was filmed at Sa Calobra beach. Port de Sóller provided the setting for the scene when the 19th-century ship is mooring.