Humans are learning to adapt to their synthetic surroundings in a not-so-distant future. Their biological makeup changed, and many humans have adapted to life with “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome” thanks partly to specialized equipment that aids in everything from eating to sleeping.
Beloved performance artist Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) sleeps in a womb-like bed suspended in mid-air. The OrchidBed, as it’s called, comes complete with software to anticipate and adjust his every bodily need. The machine even detects the growth of new organs, which Saul’s creative partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux) can observe and tattoo in his personal operating theatre. Together, Saul and Caprice have turned the discovery and removal of these new body organs into performance art via sold-out voyeuristic surgical shows using a sarcophagus-like machine where the surgeries take place.
These human evolutionary changes do not receive universal positivity. Before long, a new secret government entity is established -the National Organ Registry, led by bureaucrats Wippet and Timlin -to discreetly track new organ growths, with a particular enthusiasm for Saul’s artistic anomalies.
With increased scrutiny on the syndrome and, therefore, his art, Saul is forced to consider what would be his most shocking performance of all.
Starring Viggo Mortensen (“A History of Violence,” Eastern Promises,” “Green Book”), Léa Seydoux (“No Time to Die,” “The French Dispatch,” “Blue is the Warmest Colour”), Kristen Stewart (“Spencer,” “Clouds of Sils Maria,” “Twilight”), Scott Speedman (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Barney’s Version,” “Adoration,” “Underworld”), Welket Bungué (“Berlin Alexanderplatz”), Don McKellar (“Blindness,” “eXistenZ”), Yorgos Pirpassopoulos (“Beckett,” “Monday”), Tanaya Beatty (“Yellowstone,” “Through Black Spruce”), Nadia Litz (“Big Muddy,” “Hotel Congress,” “Blindness”), Lihi Kornowski (“Losing Alice”), and Denise Capezza (“Gomorrah”).
Written and Directed by David Cronenberg.
In Theaters Friday, June 3rd
