What does/will Alan know?
I have a few questions/thoughts that I'd love to share and get other opinions on over the next few days. I thought I'd start with Alan.
The first question I want to address is what Alan knows at the beginning of Legacy. He really can't have known Flynn was going into the Grid; he'd have known where his friend was and tried to get him out. My initial thoughts on watching the movie were that Alan knew very little.
It's hard to timeline events. Especially if you factor in other media. Right now I'm working with the movies, "The Next Day" and the dvd extras. But timeline matters, since it was only days before disappearing that Flynn told Alan about how he was about to change everything. This would imply to me that the ISOs were a very new revelation to Flynn, and he was telling Alan about the implications immediately. But we know the ISOs had a location where they gathered/lived (and could be attacked) and we know Clu re-purposed many programs before said attack. Now, time moves more slowly in the Grid, so a couple of days here could be several months there. Or maybe they'd been around longer, and Flynn only just realized the larger implications. Not sure.
Flynn had written his book, and made his speeches, and had been behaving erratically (or so his board thought). Alan had faith in him, though, it seems. One interesting thing to me is that, according to the news report, Alan initially thought Flynn was exploring those digital frontiers in some way. But later what he says to Sam is that Flynn would never have left him. But then, I suppose that could be the difference between Flynn being gone two days and Flynn being gone twenty years - one being far more likely than the other. But Alan can't have really thought it was something too mundane, either, given how he treated the page he received. I mean, we only saw him after he had time to process, of course, but he treated it like such a *reasonable* thing that I wonder if he didn't at least suspect something very, very unusual.
Then comes "The Next Day" where Alan used ISOlated Thinker as his pseudonym. I don't know whether I should make anything of it, with it not being part of the actual movies, but that implies that Flynn at least used the term "Isomorphic Algorithm" with Alan, and is likely to have used the shorthand "ISO." And I wouldn't have thought Alan would be into the whole idea the way Flynn was. Perhaps the name was more of homage to Flynn?
It doesn't really help that Alan comes off as a little ominous in "The Next Day" to me. I don't know why - I trust Alan. And I don't think I've ever seen Boxleitner play a bad guy. The only thing I can think of is how we were following Roy, identifying with that character, then Alan pops up with a completely at-ease attitude and obviously knowing more than Roy. That puts Roy at a sort of disadvantage, and since he's the character I was focusing on, it makes me ill-at-ease. Then toss in that Alan seems to have complete authority and there we go.
Which finally brings us to what Sam has told/will tell Alan. We saw that he told Alan very little at the arcade. Certainly, I think he plans on telling Alan more later. I mean, when he was talking about getting out of the Grid, he was talking about recruiting Alan and tackling it from the outside, so he's comfortable with the idea of telling Alan about the Grid. I expect he will tell Alan about Flynn's death, because Alan was his best friend and deserves to know. He'll probably tell Alan about the ISOs and what Flynn thought the implications were. I'm actually not 100% sure when/if he'd tell Alan that Quorra is an ISO. It's not really his place to tell; it's hers. And she was so wary (understandably) that she didn't even tell Sam she was an ISO. They can't really achieve any of those changes in the world until Quorra is willing to tell someone (I don't think - still not sure on how ISOs change things), but Quorra might still be reticent, even in this world. And if he doesn't tell Alan she's an ISO, does he tell Alan she's a program?
It's sunrise at the end of the movie. Sam is taking the company back at 8:00, it seems, so I guess he's going to go home and shower and then show up at Encom? I don't think the rest of the board will take Alan's word for it that they're fired. It seems there'd be more to it than just showing up and telling everyone Alan is chairman now, but that did seem to be what was implied. How much later is the Roy/Alan scene in "The Next Day"? Has there been a chance for Alan and Sam to talk?
The first question I want to address is what Alan knows at the beginning of Legacy. He really can't have known Flynn was going into the Grid; he'd have known where his friend was and tried to get him out. My initial thoughts on watching the movie were that Alan knew very little.
It's hard to timeline events. Especially if you factor in other media. Right now I'm working with the movies, "The Next Day" and the dvd extras. But timeline matters, since it was only days before disappearing that Flynn told Alan about how he was about to change everything. This would imply to me that the ISOs were a very new revelation to Flynn, and he was telling Alan about the implications immediately. But we know the ISOs had a location where they gathered/lived (and could be attacked) and we know Clu re-purposed many programs before said attack. Now, time moves more slowly in the Grid, so a couple of days here could be several months there. Or maybe they'd been around longer, and Flynn only just realized the larger implications. Not sure.
Flynn had written his book, and made his speeches, and had been behaving erratically (or so his board thought). Alan had faith in him, though, it seems. One interesting thing to me is that, according to the news report, Alan initially thought Flynn was exploring those digital frontiers in some way. But later what he says to Sam is that Flynn would never have left him. But then, I suppose that could be the difference between Flynn being gone two days and Flynn being gone twenty years - one being far more likely than the other. But Alan can't have really thought it was something too mundane, either, given how he treated the page he received. I mean, we only saw him after he had time to process, of course, but he treated it like such a *reasonable* thing that I wonder if he didn't at least suspect something very, very unusual.
Then comes "The Next Day" where Alan used ISOlated Thinker as his pseudonym. I don't know whether I should make anything of it, with it not being part of the actual movies, but that implies that Flynn at least used the term "Isomorphic Algorithm" with Alan, and is likely to have used the shorthand "ISO." And I wouldn't have thought Alan would be into the whole idea the way Flynn was. Perhaps the name was more of homage to Flynn?
It doesn't really help that Alan comes off as a little ominous in "The Next Day" to me. I don't know why - I trust Alan. And I don't think I've ever seen Boxleitner play a bad guy. The only thing I can think of is how we were following Roy, identifying with that character, then Alan pops up with a completely at-ease attitude and obviously knowing more than Roy. That puts Roy at a sort of disadvantage, and since he's the character I was focusing on, it makes me ill-at-ease. Then toss in that Alan seems to have complete authority and there we go.
Which finally brings us to what Sam has told/will tell Alan. We saw that he told Alan very little at the arcade. Certainly, I think he plans on telling Alan more later. I mean, when he was talking about getting out of the Grid, he was talking about recruiting Alan and tackling it from the outside, so he's comfortable with the idea of telling Alan about the Grid. I expect he will tell Alan about Flynn's death, because Alan was his best friend and deserves to know. He'll probably tell Alan about the ISOs and what Flynn thought the implications were. I'm actually not 100% sure when/if he'd tell Alan that Quorra is an ISO. It's not really his place to tell; it's hers. And she was so wary (understandably) that she didn't even tell Sam she was an ISO. They can't really achieve any of those changes in the world until Quorra is willing to tell someone (I don't think - still not sure on how ISOs change things), but Quorra might still be reticent, even in this world. And if he doesn't tell Alan she's an ISO, does he tell Alan she's a program?
It's sunrise at the end of the movie. Sam is taking the company back at 8:00, it seems, so I guess he's going to go home and shower and then show up at Encom? I don't think the rest of the board will take Alan's word for it that they're fired. It seems there'd be more to it than just showing up and telling everyone Alan is chairman now, but that did seem to be what was implied. How much later is the Roy/Alan scene in "The Next Day"? Has there been a chance for Alan and Sam to talk?