Comment by afandian
5 hours ago
Lots of people familiar with the material here, but as somone with zero context, I watched the film and I don't get it.
Is it something where you need to know the backstory to get the importance? The premise just seems quite thin: (Spoiler alert) the guy behind the desk had his mind erased and the guy with the gun is an impostor.
Is there more to it than that?
I think the story is written in a much better way than this video presents it: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/we-need-to-talk-about-fifty-fiv...
I know it's not polite to armchair-critique a thing I could never have created myself, but I don't think this is a particularly good adaptation of this story. One change, I think, completely robs it of some of its impact, and I would have handled something else differently as well - but oh well.
> One change, I think, completely robs it of some of its impact
Which one?
One thing I didn't like from this adaptation is that the thought-devouring idea doesn't live inside Wheeler's mind, like in the story. They made it into a CGI blob. But I suppose the story is confusing enough, so making it invisible would have been too much.
I didn't want to post any extra spoilers, so I'll ROT13 my reply:
Gur PTV oybo jnf gur ovttrfg bssraqre, V guvax. Znevba'f crg fubhyq arire unir orra ivfvoyr ba pnzren, vg ybfrf arneyl nyy bs vgf zlfgvdhr, NAQ vg fubhyqa'g or "phgr". Fur unf vg ba n yrnfu, ohg vg'f fgvyy n irel qnatrebhf FPC! Vg fubhyqa'g or ebyyvat nebhaq yvxr n phgr yvggyr OO8 rdhvinyrag.
V guvax gur glcr bs ivrjre jub vf jngpuvat na nqncgngvba bs guvf fgbel jbhyq unir qrnyg jvgu vg svar.
Frpbaqnevyl, V xabj gung Pynl "zvffrq" uvf qbfr, ohg ur jnf fgvyy tncvat ng ure crg yvxr ur'q arire frra na FPC orsber va uvf yvsr, yvxr ur jnf gur arjovr orvat vagebqhprq gb guvatf. Juvpu qbrf znxr fbzr frafr va guvf pbagrkg, ohg ur'f fgvyy njner gung ur'f n irel fravbe bssvpvny ng gur FPC sbhaqngvba. Vg whfg qbrfa'g zngpu uvf punenpgrevmngvba ng nyy.
Guveqyl - naq guvf vf zl zbfg crggl pbzcynvag - vs V jrer gur jevgre/qverpgbe bs guvf, V jbhyqa'g unir unq uvf "nffvfgnag" chg njnl uvf tha orsber fur fgbyr vg. V jbhyq unir phg sebz n fprar bs uvz nvzvat gur tha ng ure, onpx gb gur erfg bs gur fprar sbe n ovg, naq gura onpx gb uvz jvgubhg gur tha. Vg'f zber vzcerffvir gb fgrny n tha bhg bs fbzrbar'f unaqf guna vg vf bhg bs n ubyfgre.
You're missing a bit, like there is an entire top secert division of people that fight against mind erasing aliens, and there are a large variety of mind erasing aliens.
It's set in the "SCP" universe. It's a collection of short stories ( https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/ ), collaboratively written.
Most of them are (as expected) crap. Some of them are really scary, and some are hilarious: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4703
> Is there more to it than that?
Yes, there is. I can see how someone not already familiar with the material would feel lost.
First, it's based on SCP, as other people have mentioned. Second, it's very dialogue/monologue driven, there's lots of exposition about a shared universe, vaguely hinted at, secret government agencies, conspiracies, etc.
The author chose a very topic which by definition is hard to understand: ideas (or memes) that do NOT want to be remembered. So a lot of what happens is discussing "dangerous" ideas that do not want to be remembered or discussed. There's a larger overarching plot, split across several related stories.
The guy with the gun was one such idea embodied in the physical shape of a man. It was confusing the boss on purpose. Wheeler was on to him from the beginning (because her boss doesn't have an assistant), but needed to get her boss on board with the idea first, before shooting the "assistant". Everything she does in the dialogue has this goal.