Sunday, April 3, 2011

"Skyline" modern mythology meets Christian and mystic symbolism

Interestingly the characters in the movie apparently have no last names.  
The story revolves around a couple Jarrod and Elaine, and Jarrod's friend Terry, his wife, assistant and friend as well as Oliver.
In this story Terry has become a success in the land of dreams Los Angeles, in the West, the land of the setting sun.
Jarrod is clearly the talented creative person in the friendship between him and Terry and yet Terry is the one who has been gifted with success.  Terry has invited Jarrod and his girlfriend out to his place.


                                                                        Jarrod


Jarrod is clearly an artist and creative type, the "right brain" personified. 
Terry lives in an exclusive building on a high floor, showing in effect his superior status as being above the "rabble" and a member of the "elite".  Jarrod and his girlfriend are members of the proletariat, blue collar types, thrust into the party atmosphere.  They have some difficulty because of dissociation and a derangement of senses helped by the liberal use of alcohol and drugs.
The real story starts with the descent of BLUE light emitters onto the city, which have an overwhelming attraction for people.  It should be noted that this is a complete ripoff of the so-called "Project Bluebeam" purportedly a secret government program to simulate an alien invasion or the second coming of Christ or Mohammed for propaganda purposes.  This has been shown to largely be a complete fabrication, maybe as disinformation by the government or simply the imagination of a religious fanatic.  One might see some of Christopher Knowles' work on this topic or listen to an interview I had with him in which we talked about this very topic.
The BLUE light, again more water association, in this case the aliens appear to not be interested in the water because they are focused on humanity and man does not live on the water but on the land, serves as a carrier for a sort of neuro-chemical "virus" which hypnotizes the viewer while the body is "abducted" and taken aboard the alien craft for nefarious purposes.  
Jarrod sees the light, is ENLIGHTENED.
                                                  Blue light virus infects Jarrod


Jarrod is spared abduction because the contact was broken before it could get to the critical moment.  Additional information is revealed in the movie which indicate that Jarrod may have had other things going on that helped him to avoid the effects of the light.  Having been inoculated, so to speak he later may look on the light without totally succumbing AND may project his thoughts through the viral link to the "aliens" and affect them remotely.  Mind control for sure.  The neuro-chemical-mechanical "virus" seems to impart to the human victim a sense and reality of physical and mental power.  Jarrod later demonstrates this.
The "aliens" are an interesting element in this movie. 
                                                          "Alien" Mothership


There are obvious parallels between the aliens in this movie and the Borg, and the Matrix's "Squiddies" 
and the Ogdru Jahad from Hellboy




 as well as the amorphous, tentacled monsters of H. P. Lovecraft.  The Lovecraft element is most apparent because of two factors.  The first is the origin of the "aliens" is strongly implied to be from another dimension and not from outer space, contextual analysis will reveal this as you watch the movie.  The second point is the OBVIOUS connection between the aliens and humans that implies....wait for it.... alien intervention theory!
It is obvious that the aliens have an intimate connection with humans and may, in fact, NEED humans.  I will not spoil the movie further by laying this out here but you will see this clearly displayed in the movie.
What is perhaps even more significant is the strong connection to the Rapture of Christianity.  Only in this case it is a sort of "anti-rapture".
The religious element is repeated in a number of ways in the movie, where sins result in punishment delivered by the "hand of God" in the form of "aliens".
The religious element is very strong and is clearly Christian in origin in the film.  The "Project Blue Beam" connection clearly indicates some strong influence from "fringe" Christian groups.
There are some other overt and covert themes that become apparent as one watches the movie.  We have the LIGHT bringing ENLIGHTENMENT which confers POWER.  This is the very heart of Hermeticism as well as many secret societies.  There is of course an element of danger in this seeking of enlightenment as is well known to those who have looked into this.


And Eastern religions, but that connection is not explored in this film with it's heavy Christian symbolism.
There is, of course, the brave, selfless sacrifice of the military.  The military intervention in the movie may be jarringly out of context because one of the first things they do is to hit one of the mother ships with a nuclear weapon.
 Seemingly showing no regard for the people of Los Angeles.  One must remember that other military action elsewhere may have proven ineffective and most of the people of Los Angeles were by this time gone.  This is really not adequately explained or explored in the movie and is a contextual problem.
In all the movie is highly derivative and has many contextual errors, but the symbolism and the origins of the themes explored, lightly, or heavily, in the movie are well worth looking into.
The creative artist, sets on a path of enlightenment, by going WEST into the setting Sun perhaps indicating a sort of reverse or negative enlightenment.  There is an element of incorporation into a greater whole, but with the caveat of the power of human will and love.  This results in a sort of individuation within the collective, shades of Jung perhaps.  Not a great movie but watchable.  

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