Æon Flux (film)

Æon Flux (2005) is set 400 years in the future, when disease has wiped out the majority of Earth's population—save for one walled, protected city-state, Bregna, ruled by a congress of scientists. The story centers on Æon Flux, the top operative in the underground 'Monican' rebellion—led by The Handler. When Æon is sent on a mission to kill the government's ruler, she uncovers a world of secrets.
 * Written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. Directed by Karyn Kusama.  Adapted from the animated science fiction television series of the same name.

The Perfect World Meets The Perfect Assassin (taglines)

Æon Flux

 * I had a family once, I had a life. Now all I have is a mission.
 * We're meant to die. Its what makes everything about us matter.
 * To live once…But with hope.
 * Some called Bregna the perfect society. Some call it the height of human civilization. But others know better. The Goodchilds built Bregna to ensure us a future. They built the Relico, a memorial to remind us of what we've survived. They built walls to protect us. They tell us that outside, nature has retaken the world. But the real problems lie within. We are haunted by sorrows we cannot name. People disappear and our government denies these crimes. The Goodchild regime provides for us, as long as we stay quiet. So we trade freedom for a gilded cage. But there are rebels whoe refuse to make that trade, who fight to overthrow a government that silences us, who fight in the name of the disappeared. They call themselves the Monicans. I am one of them.

Keeper

 * You are needed.
 * Welcome back.

Trevor Goodchild

 * This is a war, and people on all sides die.
 * Aeon. I'm sorry for the pain. It's not safe to talk in the open. Nothing's as it seems…You had your chance, why did you hesitate?…You know where to find me.

Dialogue

 * [Æon plans to destroy the Relico]
 * Trevor Goodchild: This isn't the answer, Æon! There's no guarantee I can find the cure again! Cloning is all we have!
 * Æon Flux: It's not enough! Our minds are unravelling and every time you bring us back it gets worse!
 * Trevor Goodchild: If you do this, we end!
 * Æon Flux: We're meant to die—that's what makes anything about us matter. Living like this is torture—we're just ghosts…
 * Trevor Goodchild: That's not how I feel…not now…


 * Trevor Goodchild: There was a complication when we cured the industrial disease. The vaccine had an unintended side effect: sterility. Only one more generation of our species could survive. It was a desperate time. Cloning had never been used on humans, successfully. Now when a person dies, their DNA is recycled. Oren and I built the Relico to store DNA and to conceal the cloning process. The Keeper finds a suitable couple and using food additives, we induce a chemical pregnancy. When a woman comes in for an exam, we implant a cloned embryo. From there things happen naturally. In nine months, a citizen who died is reborn. For seven generations, Oren and I have cloned ourselves, taught ourselves, so that I could keep trying to find a cure…while we all live on.
 * Æon Flux: That's what we are? Copies?
 * Trevor Goodchild: We're more than that! It wasn't supposed to be permanent—I've been trying to cure the infertility. Una was part of my test groups. Oren lied to me—he told me her test had failed, like the others. But she had become pregnant. He killed all my subjects, your sister included.
 * Æon Flux: He killed her because he was pregnant…
 * Trevor Goodchild: Una didn't know it, but her baby would have been one of the first new children in 400 years. Oren's changed–he doesn't want to go back, he doesn't want a cure…
 * Æon Flux: He wants to live forever.


 * Æon Flux: Trevor…the name you called me?
 * Trevor Goodchild: …Catherine.
 * Æon Flux: That was my name…
 * Trevor Goodchild: You were my wife. We had a life together just like anybody else…
 * Æon Flux: [grabbing his hand] Wait! You need to tell me!
 * Trevor Goodchild: I lost you during the disease and you couldn't be brought back. I've lived and died seven times since then, and each time I taught myself about you. You were an idea I kept alive, something I had to imagine. But when I saw you, what I felt was real, and I knew you, I remembered you. What we had together has survived all that time…
 * Æon Flux: …and I was looking for you.
 * Trevor Goodchild: …and I've been waiting.
 * Æon Flux: We were different people.
 * Trevor Goodchild: We were.
 * Æon Flux: Those people are gone…
 * Trevor Goodchild: …but something in them came back.


 * Claudius: We're sick. And Trevor's trying to cure us. That's all I know.
 * Æon Flux: Trevor tried to dope me. Tell me what's in this. [hands over a vial]
 * Claudius: [examines vial] It's a message.
 * Æon Flux: Well, what does it say?
 * Claudius: You have to drink it. That's how it works.


 * Æon Flux: Shopping for me, Una?
 * Una Flux: [laughs] Haven't you heard? Special occasion! My sister's finally coming to dinner. Claudius and I are looking forward to tonight. For once you'll be in the house long enough to sit down.
 * Æon Flux: That's why I wanted to meet with you here.
 * Una Flux: [slightly annoyed] Æon?
 * Æon Flux: I may not make it tonight. I'm sorry. [sees Una's face drop] Don't be upset.
 * Una Flux: It's not that you can't come to dinner. It's why!
 * Æon Flux: You know, I use to imagine you'd come with me.
 * Una Flux: We have different ways of solving problems.
 * Æon Flux: Yes. You ignore them.
 * Una Flux: How could I possible ignore them? [looking around] I see the problems. I feel them and I'm trying to make something good out of it…a life.
 * Æon Flux: [almost seething] What kind of life is it?
 * Una Flux: There are good things here.
 * Æon Flux: [smiling at Una] There's one.
 * Una Flux: So, I have a surprise for you tonight.
 * Æon Flux: [excited] Tell me!
 * Una Flux: Tonight. So be careful…come back.


 * Trevor Goodchild: I'm getting worried about you, Oren. This edge you've taken. Displays like that aren't helpful to us.
 * Oren Goodchild: [shrugs] I believe in protecting what we've created. I own't apologize for that.
 * Trevor Goodchild: This was created to allow me to do my work. I can't do that if you can't control yourself. Understood?
 * Oren Goodchild: Yes, it is.
 * Trevor Goodchild: And what of the test results?
 * Oren Goodchild: [lying] All negative…sorry.
 * Trevor Goodchild: Find me a new test group by morning.
 * Oren Goodchild: Maybe it's time to give up on the tests, Trevor. We're living the solution already. This is perfection. Why can't you just embrace it?
 * Trevor Goodchild: You see what's happening to people. You know how desperate this has become.
 * Oren Goodchild: It can be controlled. Contained.
 * Trevor Goodchild: I think your forgetting that this was all meant to be temporary.
 * Oren Goodchild: You've always said that, but why should it be?
 * Trevor Goodchild: Because it's wrong.
 * Oren Goodchild: Things change…but I know you won't.
 * Trevor Goodchild: [smiling] You know me.
 * Oren Goodchild: Been your brother a long time.
 * Oren Goodchild: You're right about that.


 * Trevor Goodchild: Catherine? Aeon?
 * Æon Flux: You called me by another name earlier.
 * Trevor Goodchild: I did and you let me live.
 * Æon Flux: Give me my gun. We'll try it again.
 * Trevor Goodchild: [smirks] Maybe later.
 * Æon Flux: What was that name?
 * Trevor Goodchild: You know me, don't you?
 * Æon Flux: [raged] No!
 * Trevor Goodchild: Do you know who you are?
 * Æon Flux: I know I came here to kill you.
 * Trevor Goodchild: That's why you're in a cell. But we're both still alive for a reason. I don't know what this is…but it's good to see you.


 * Æon Flux: Why am I here?
 * Trevor Goodchild: I needed to see you again.
 * Æon Flux: You killed my sister!
 * Trevor Goodchild: I didn't know anything about it…I'm sorry.
 * Æon Flux: And the excuses you?
 * Trevor Goodchild: No. But this is a war. People on all sides die.
 * Æon Flux: She shouldn't have. She had nothing to do with this.
 * Trevor Goodchild: Everyone's involved in this.
 * Æon Flux: [furious] She wasn't. [looks down at her gun as Trevor hands it to her] I don't need that to kill you.
 * Trevor Goodchild: [smiles] But it would be easier, wouldn't it? Everything changed when I saw you…I know you and you know me.
 * Æon Flux: [grabs her weapon, walks backwards] Why do I know you? Why?
 * Trevor Goodchild: [lowers her arm, advancing slowly] Why did you come back? What do you want from me?
 * Æon Flux: [grabs his jacket, forcing him to the wall] What do I want? I want my sister back! I want to remember what it feels like to be a person. [kisses Trevor]
 * Trevor Goodchild: [breathless] Aeon.
 * Æon Flux: Why do I feel this way around you?


 * Sithandra: You're certainly killing him kindly.
 * Æon Flux: Situation has changed.
 * Sithandra: Our orders haven't.
 * Æon Flux: I'm not following orders anymore.
 * Sithandra: Why are you doing this, Aeon?
 * Æon Flux: Everything has become more complicated!
 * Sithandra: No. It's simple.
 * Æon Flux: Trevor may not be responsible for the mistake.
 * Sithandra: Trevor?
 * Æon Flux: I'm trying to find out who is.
 * Sithandra: Your mission was to kill Goodchild. And you can't or won't do that, so…give me your weapon and return to the frontier.
 * Æon Flux: Didn't I teach you to think for yourself?
 * Sithandra: You taught me alot more than that.


 * Freya: [on Aeon] She escaped.
 * Trevor Goodchild: Why am I not surprised.
 * Freya: I found her in the library. I think I wounded her.
 * Trevor Goodchild: You attacked her?
 * Freya: She's a Monican agent, who tried to kill you. I assumed it was obvious what I should do.
 * Trevor Goodchild: Freya, I want her alive. Do you understand? Is Oren aware of this?
 * Freya: I can't find him.
 * Trevor Goodchild: Stay close.

Taglines

 * The Perfect World Meets The Perfect Assassin
 * The future is flux.
 * Perfect Future

Quotes about the film

 * As is the case with any totalitarian government, there are rebels. Viewing their predicament as "having traded freedom for a gilded cage," their goals are to disrupt the accepted order and kill the ruler, Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas), and/or his second-in-command brother, Oren (Jonny Lee Miller).  The most dangerous of the rebels (who call themselves "Monicans") is Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron).
 * The ideas underlying Aeon Flux 's plot are the film's strength, and the filmmakers deserve some credit for doing more than paying lip service to them.  Director Karyn Kusama (Girlfight) has a sense of visual flair.  Many aspects of Aeon Flux  's look could have been derivative, but are not.
 * James Berardinelli, "[Aeon Flux (United States, 2005) Aeon Flux (United States, 2005)]," ReelViews.net (2005).
 * Based on the animated MTV series, Aeon Flux has several entertaining action sequences, like one in which Theron, crawling like a spider, dodges metal blades that pop out of the grass.
 * Owen Gleiberman, "Aeon Flux," Entertainment Weekly (2005).
 * There's no way to say it but to come right out with it: "Aeon Flux" is a good movie.  Actually, it's a really good movie.
 * This movie makes sense of "Aeon Flux's" senselessness in a way that makes it more fun, not less. Befitting a movie that is based on being that sort of "Bladerunner"-"Matrix" sort of smart, near-future sheen, "Aeon Flux" is full of provocative ideas and wild technology.
 * Tom Maurstad, "'Aeon Flux' pleasantly provocative," PostStar.com (2005)

Cast

 * Charlize Theron — Æon Flux
 * Marton Csokas — Trevor Goodchild
 * Jonny Lee Miller — Oren Goodchild
 * Sophie Okonedo — Sithandra
 * Pete Postlethwaite — Keeper
 * Frances McDormand — Handler
 * Amelia Warner — Una Flux
 * Caroline Chikezie — Freya
 * Nikolai Kinski — Claudius
 * Paterson Joseph — Giroux
 * Yangzom Brauen — Inari
 * Ralph Herforth — Gardenar