The year is 2060, and in quiet suburbs of Los Angeles is a broken-down house that speaks eloquently of braving the elements, with its cracked and peeling paint. In the house resides Walter, a war veteran awaiting his appointment with his ‘uploader’, the person who will ‘terminate’ his life on the request of his legal heirs. The ‘uploader’ arrives with the machine that will accomplish the task. She gets ready to start her business. Meanwhile, Walter gets second thoughts and decides he wants to postpone the event. The ‘Uploader’ gets in touch with HQ and conveys Walter’s request, but the system denies it downright. She explores all avenues available to extend Walter’s life, even for a few days more. But the system categorically denies all requests and leaves no option for any further appeal. The system further places the uploader’s position at stake for not completing the task as scheduled. How does the uploader deal with a client who does not want to die? Does Walter get to see a couple more sunrises as his last wish?
‘Walter’ is a short film script by writer Brooke DeRosa. DeRosa imagines our world in the not too distant future where central intelligence has a complete hold over every aspect of human life, and even of human death. In this totalitarian system, controlled by machines and artificial intelligence, decision making is in the hands of artificial intelligence and there is no room for human feelings or emotions. ‘Walter’ captures the hopelessness of the system in its entirety. This she accomplished with only a few pieces of conversation between an old man abandoned by his children, and an employee of a corporation entrusted with terminating his life. Here lies the genius of this short feature. The film shines a sliver of hope as we detect remnants of love and empathy in the uploader. The uploader soon realizes that she is but a pawn in the larger game, helpless against machines. Their clinical precision in abiding by the rulebook proves to be a deadly killer. ‘Walter’ is a brief statement of how man is treading a dangerous path by prioritizing efficiency over humans and their emotions.
The uploader in ‘Walter’ is a good attempt at forcasting that employees who work under machines will soon lose thier human touch and become like their artificial bosses, cold and heartless. They will soon realize they are expected to demonstrate the efficiencies expected from machines. This will push them to stick to every word in the rulebook to stay employed. The question remains, is the uploader still a ‘human’ or has turned into a ‘bot’.
