In 2019, "Alita: Battle Angel," a gorgeous, cyberpunk adventure was unleashed upon the world.
Featuring a wide-eyed cyborg in a corrupt world,
this visually packed film lends itself to rewatching. In fact, there are some things
you might only notice after a second viewing, and we're here to revisit those moments.
The dystopian 26th century setting of "Alita: Battle Angel" comes complete with a floating
sky city, killer sports, advanced robotics, and even a bit of chocolate.
"That is so great."
However, hundreds of years of technological advancement have blurred the line between
human and machine. By the time Alita steps out onto the bustling streets of Iron City,
you've probably already acclimated to the CGI-heavy details of her design.
Cybernetic limb replacements are commonplace in this world — in fact, many of the characters
are so heavily modified that the only organic component left in them seems to be their brains.
As more characters enter the fray, viewers don't even realize on their first watch of the film
that there might actually be more CGI-enhanced figures than there are plain old human actors.
Excluding the innumerable extras wandering around in the background,
few "Alita" characters aren't part machine by the time we reach the finale.
Even Alita's love interest, Hugo, eventually has his head transferred to a cyborg body.
The movie's ability to pull you into this cyberpunk reality is thanks to its top-notch CGI.
That's not a surprise, considering the talent and experience behind the film: James Cameron,
the film's producer and co-screenwriter, worked on the spectacular visuals for more than a decade.
The central metaphor in "Alita" is blatant: The human elite live in the floating city of
Zalem and dump their trash into the city below, where the rest of humanity lives.
Most of Iron City's population is either desperately trying to scrape by or working
feverishly to move to the city above. Alita is repeatedly told that no one ever ascends
to life in Zalem — despite people's belief in the possibility, it just doesn't seem to happen.
However, the cargo tubes that ship materials up to Zalem
seem to be a viable way of sneaking in. The prospect even comes up in conversation,
but is dismissed: When Hugo informs Alita about the world around her,
he describes the tubes as meant for cargo, not people — and the topic doesn't come up again.
While the concept of sneaking into Zalem through a cargo tube seems pretty obvious, it must
be extremely hazardous. Whatever future gizmo zips cargo around could probably crush a human,
or a cyborg body. Also, it might be pressurized in some lethal way. But our vast knowledge of
heist movies has us thinking there are more possibilities here than Hugo might realize.
However, after Hugo has his cyborg body, he tackles the tubes from another angle
and decides to just walk on top of one all the way to Zalem.
Unfortunately, he didn't expect his stroll to be cut tragically short by spinning blades of death.
Alita's introduction into the world of the hunter-warrior arrives thanks to her scrapyard
rescuer, Dr. Dyson Ido. In order to satisfy the pain he feels over his daughter's death,
the doctor has registered with the Factory as a hunter-warrior. He roams the streets at night,
defeating vicious criminals in exchange for bounty payments to fund his clinic.
His weapon of choice is a rocket hammer, a gigantic blunt weapon with a rocket at one end
that propels the device through its target. We only see the doctor fight briefly in one skirmish
before Alita jumps in and dismantles his opponents with ease. If she hadn't been there, though,
we find it difficult to believe Ido would have been successful with his cumbersome weapon.
The criminals in the alley are all cyborgs and Ido manages to knock off one of their limbs with his
rocket hammer, but after this blow, he stumbles while trying to wield his massive weapon again.
Unless Ido has spent years with a 100% success rate on his first fatal blow,
it's hard to imagine that the kindly doctor has the strength, speed
and agility to be a successful hunter-warrior. Honestly,
the poor guy can't even navigate through a crowd without running into an innocent bystander.
"Alita!"
Given the impoverished citizens of Iron City's access to cybernetics, there must be some truly
extraordinary gadgets being used in Zalem. We never truly see what life is like up there, but we
do get a few details that paint a vivid picture. The fact that Dr. Ido and Dr. Chiren [SHER-ehn]
were forced into exile because of their daughter's disease indicates that death is shunned up
there. In fact, Nova's words, spoken through his puppets, indicate access to outright immortality.
Just before Alita thrusts her blade through Vector, Nova's voice creeps through him to say…
"I found the only way to enjoy immortality is to watch others die."
On a first watch, the viewer is processing so much information that this detail might slip by
without much notice. This line immediately follows the thug Grewishka's defeat and shortly after the
reveal of Dr. Chiren's disassembled body. But a rewatch allows its implications to sink in,
as do Alita's memories. When they return to her, they reveal that 300 years earlier,
she was already battling Nova. Zalem residents seem to have access to technology so advanced,
they can achieve immortality while maintaining much of their physical humanity.
Meanwhile, Iron City's population is forced to fuse their battered
bodies with whatever bits of old tech they can scrounge up.
While exploring the underwater wreckage of a spaceship outside of Iron City, Alita finds a
superior body, which possesses lost technology from the United Republic of Mars. Initially,
Ido refuses to attach Alita to this body, but after she's sliced apart in battle, he gives in.
Thus, Alita is fused with the Berserker, a body of immense power and skill.
When Alita awakens in her new form, she shows off by executing a graceful handstand
on her index finger. After righting herself, she notices an intake flow on her shoulder
that generates arc plasma at her finger. It seems like an unimportant, if very cool,
detail on a first watch, one you might assume is a nod to the original manga. But after seeing
how everything plays out towards the end of the film, you'll realize this device's true purpose.
After Alita relieves the hunter-warrior Zapan [zuh-PAN] of the ancient Damascus Blade,
she displays the ability to engulf the entire weapon
in a glowing plasma. It is that little blue flame, which she can now generate,
that pumps power into the sword and allows her to slice through sentinels like butter.
Three centuries after the Fall, an ultra-violent sport called motorball dominates Iron City.
Every kid grows up playing the sport, albeit with a little less death involved. Alita is
introduced to the game by Hugo and plays with the neighborhood kids while learning how it all works.
At its core, motorball comes down to ball possession and scoring.
After watching the movie a couple times, however, we're starting to think
scoring takes a backseat to being the last one standing, at least on the professional level.
When we see a pro motorball match in action, some players do appear to chase the elusive
ball. But many other players seem to ignore it, interested only in ripping through their opponents
with whatever new-age weaponry the league has deemed legal. And if we're being honest,
we wouldn't have it any other way: Motorball without carnage would just be robots on
rollerblades. The grand arena is a place for these futuristic gladiators to flex their might
and satiate the public's lust for violence. If they happen to toss that wonky ball into the goal
while shredding their machine bodies, well, that makes for extra bragging rights. But it really
seems that the point here is to make it through the match without getting your head ripped off.
"Ahhh, crap." The most obvious scene in "Alita:
Battle Angel" that points to a sequel is Nova's menacing reveal at the end of the film. However,
there are numerous other details hidden throughout the movie that hint towards additional plots ripe
for expansion. One of the biggest occurs when Alita is being shown around the motorball track
by Hugo. When she asks who the best player in the game is, Hugo responds by saying that Jashugan
is on track to be champion. For less than 10 seconds, attention turns to the motorball player
in question as he receives repairs. It happens so quickly, you might not notice that Jashugan
is played by Jai Courtney, star of "Suicide Squad," "Divergent," and "Terminator: Genisys."
An actor known for his work in other blockbuster franchises is a nod to
more being in store for this character. In an interview with Business Insider,
he recalled a conversation he had with the film's director, Robert Rodriguez.
Courtney said...
"[Rodriguez] called me up when they were in production and said,
'There's this role, it's a little small on paper but if this thing blows up,
I'll need someone who I can rely on when we revisit it.'"
That definitely tells us Rodriguez has much more in mind for Courtney,
should an "Alita" sequel get the green light.
The seedy underbelly of Iron City is run by a man named Vector and his power stems
from his corruption of professional motorball.
Vector holds sway over the game's odds by tweaking the players' power,
going so far as to hire naïve youth to abduct and rob cyborgs of their limbs. His direct connection
to Zalem enables such manipulation: He uses this relationship to make those around him believe
he has the power to send people to the floating city. Vector dangles this promise in front of
his lackeys — until they wise up and decide they've had enough. It's at this moment that he
fulfills his end of the bargain and sends them to Zalem — albeit not in the way they'd hoped.
Of course, if you've only watched "Alita" once, you might not have latched on to this detail.
One example is when Dr. Chiren decides to quit her position and Vector tells her...
"Don't you think it's time you went to Zalem? You know, I could send you up there right now."
The next time we see Chiren is after Alita crashes into Vector's office. He says that
he always keeps his promises to send people to Zalem — just like Dr. Chiren. Unfortunately,
he then opens up a chest, revealing her brain and other parts, ready to make its journey to
the city in the sky. Nova demands body parts for his experiments and, as Vector says,
that is the only way anyone gets to Zalem.
There are a couple rules regarding what weapons are allowed in the motorball arena,
but they're pretty lax. In fact, after watching the movie a few times, you can't help but notice
how the sport transcends the laws of Iron City at large. Guns are outlawed here — Hugo
lays it all out when informing Alita about weapons and the sword being carried by Zapan.
"All guns are outlawed in Iron City, punishable by death."
The need for unique weapons among the hunter-warriors makes sense, given
this stipulation. But what's with all the deadly projectiles used by the competitors in motorball?
When Alita is being chased down by an entire team of bloodthirsty challengers hell-bent on placing
her head on a pike, one of them fires a cannon at her, causing a massive explosion that knocks
Alita off her feet. Now, we immediately picture bullet-firing pistols in regards to the "no guns"
policy, but rocket launchers really seem like they should fall into that illegal category as well.
The announcer of the match can be heard mentioning legality and regulations during the matches,
but we're left thinking that might just be for show. Since the cannon forms one player's entire,
gigantic arm, the laws of Iron City seem to be pretty flexible.
When Alita displays the strength of her new Berserker body,
Dr. Ido has an appropriate response…
"A warrior's spirit needs a warrior's body,"
The synergy Alita has with her new body is indeed remarkable. The body boasts miraculous
nanotechnology: Once Alita is attached to the Berserker, the entire system synchronizes with
her mind and begins making adjustments to better represent her sense of self.
This characteristic is subtly put on display again during the closing moments of the film.
Compared to how her Berserker form appears when she's first attached to it,
the body that viewers are shown later is much more attuned to combat. This
hints at what Alita has been through in the months after Hugo's death.
Chiefly, she's fought her way through the motorball league — which is no easy task. Thus,
her body has changed to reflect her circumstances. It's a literal adaptation, but also a reflection
of Alita's inner nature, and her boundless potential. You can't help but wonder what
other forms she might be able to take — perhaps in a sequel, if fans of the film get their wish.
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