March
18
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Infinitum: Subject Unknown (15)
Infinitum: Subject Unknown (15)
Director/Writer Matthew Butler-Hart
Runtime: 1h 26min
Cast: Tori Butler-Hart, Ian McKellen, Conleth Hill
SYNOPSIS: Jane wakes up in a strange attic, in a parallel world, with seemingly no way out. She is stuck in a time-loop, destined to relive the same day over and over with little memory of her doing it before. But with each ‘reset’ she starts to remember more and begins to piece together what may be happening to her, with clues pointing to the mysterious Professor Aaron Ostergaard and Dr. Charles Marland-White.
URL: https://youtu.be/Llnj3GVAb90
Destined to be one of the great films of the COVID-19 era which will represent the best of film art that emerged, Infinitum: Subject Unknown, co-written and directed by Matthew Butler-Hart and starring producer/co-writer Tori Butler-Hart. It is a low-budget, cerebral, sci-fi feature shot in the first full lockdown last year (2020) on an iPhone with just the two of them on set and the crew working remotely for the four weeks of the shoot.
Cameos by Ian McKellen [The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003), The Hobbit trilogy and Magneto in the X-Men franchise.] and Conleth Hill [Game of Thrones, TV (2011-2019), The Isle (2018), Two Down (2015)] were shot by themselves remotely.
The film follows Jane (Tori Butler-Hart) who wakes up in a strange attic, in a parallel world, with seemingly no way out. She is stuck in a time-loop, destined to relive the same day over and over with little memory of her doing it before. But with each ‘reset’ she starts to remember more and begins to piece together what may be happening to her, with clues pointing to a Professor Aaron Ostergaard (Conleth Hill) and Dr. Charles Marland-White (Ian McKellen).
As she makes her way to the mysterious Wytness Quantum Research Centre to find a way to stop it, she begins to get glimpses into other worlds and other versions of herself. But each time she seems to be getting closer to an answer, she is immediately reset back to the attic she fears, to once more start her journey to learn the truth.
As she travels from the city to the hidden research centre, she sees that the world is entirely empty. There is evidence that life was once here, houses, cars and zeppelins hovering above, but everything is boarded up and abandoned. At night however, Jane sees torches and helicopters in the distance and discovers that soldiers are searching for her, adding to her desperation to get to the research centre and look for answers that might send her home.
Once inside the centre the laws of time become erratic and Jane sees glimpses of people who are clearly living in another world, but who are having an influence on the one she is trapped in, and those effects are actions growing worse with every ‘reset’.
An engaging, entertaining and intense sci-fi mystery thriller grappling with big ideas about alternative means to define reality, contemporary human concerns and quantum theory.
Impressive aspects of the film include images of locked down London, the handheld camera work and slick editing and the gravitas from the two excellent cameos of Ian McKellen and Conleth Hill all contribute; but it is the outstanding performance of Tori Butler-Hart that is always most convincing and watchable.
Infinitum: Subject Unknown is to be an introduction to a larger world which appears in the feature script ‘Infinitum’ from Fizz and Ginger Film; it is now also being turned into a TV pilot for the U.S and a graphic novel.
Streaming on all VOD platforms on the 22nd March
Images courtesy of Fizz and Ginger Films
