Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you could see the future?
Would you try and change the future, or would you remain idle in the present?
Every action that you make, every word that you say can and will send you down different pathways.
Is there one correct pathway to take over the other?
Or will every pathway that you take ultimately have a similar result?
Mr. Nobody (2012) is a movie that explores this issue.
When Nemo Nobody was born he had the ability to see the future and all the different outcomes.
This was because when he was in heaven as a baby, he says that you already know what your future could be.
Right before you are born an angel taps you on the head and you forget what your future could be.
However, the angel forgot to tap him on the head so he can see all possible futures with their outcomes.
In the year 2092 Nemo Nobody is the last mortal on earth, since he has been alive there has been stem cell research that allowed humans to live forever.
The movie centers around an interview with this journalist, asking about Mr. Nobody's past.
However, he tells the journalist of three different pasts, each one contradicting themselves.
As he tells all these different versions of his supposed past, he keeps changing what happens with the people around him.
It remains unclear to the viewer and the journalist which past is the actual past of Nemo Nobody.
Later on in the movie, Nemo goes on to explain to the viewer that there are three spatial dimensions, forward, left and right.
He explains that going backwards is not possible.
This is because once something has been said or done it cannot be taken back.
He uses the analogy of writing with ballpoint pen.
Once words have been written on a paper in pen they cannot be erased.
Although he does not say this directly, I'd like to think that even if you were to white out the words, they are still there.
No one but yourself will know that you changed them; however, you can not change the fact that you wrote those words in the first place.
All a person can do is live in the present and try and make a better future for themselves.
As the movie comes to a close a reoccurring memory that Nemo describes to the journalist in his stories appears.
This memory was when he was a child and his parents were getting divorced.
I like to think that this moment is what the whole movie is about.
He is with his parents at the train station and he has to make a decision on who he wants to be with.
His mother gets on the train and it begins to pull away.
He has to make a decision then and there.
However, he is struggling to make one because he can see the future with both his mother and his father.
Both futures have different outcomes and different possibilities.
This is where I think the spatial dimension concept, he explained comes into play.
He can go left and stay with his father and live with future he chose.
He can go right and run after the train to be with his mother and live with the future he chose.
Or he can go forward and be an independent individual.
However, he cannot go backward in time and change what happened with his parents.
The only thing he can do is react in the present moment to his changing environment.
He stands there alienated unsure of what path to take.
This is why I believe he is called Mr. Nobody.
No matter what path he takes there will be a different future.
He is convinced that if he remains idle nothing will happen because if you have no direction you won't have much of a future.
By keeping his feet planted the world will change, but he will not have gone anywhere expect where he is standing.
I leave you today with one last question, if you had the ability to see possible futures, where would you go?
Would you go left, right or forward or stay where you are?
