From the moment the first traction city rolls onto the screen in Mortal Engines, it’s obvious that the world of the film is unlike any we’ve ever seen before — except if you remember walking cities or moving cties by Archigram.
The context of Mortal Engines is around the year 3000, our contemporary technology has disappeared. Humankind has taken a step back returning to iron, to coal, to steam, , that is to say, a Steampunk world. Everything happens in a post apocalyptic time where the planet Earth has survived a sixty-minute war - the time necessary to destroy our civilitation with quantum energy weapons.
Mortal Engines posits the reign of “traction cities,” metropolises mounted on wheels, resemble gigantic versions of the walking castles of Miyazaki, running on caterpillar tracks. They roam wild, engaging in a system called Municipal Darwinism, in which bigger cities capture and essentially consume smaller cities for resources. The continents have been pressed together, North America is a radioactive desert, while Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania are united, but separated by an insurmountable wall creating “static settlements” by an insurmountable wall.
It is in this setting that the story takes place. However, the emphasis placed on the mechanics of everything going on around the characters, Jihae, the rebel leader a young woman (Hera Hilmar) seeking personal revenge and a young man (Robert Sheenan) trying to save his skin, and both trying to save the world when the armistice between the East and West comes to an end, show us it is not the main focus of interest in the film.
The context of Mortal Engines is around the year 3000, our contemporary technology has disappeared. Humankind has taken a step back returning to iron, to coal, to steam, , that is to say, a Steampunk world. Everything happens in a post apocalyptic time where the planet Earth has survived a sixty-minute war - the time necessary to destroy our civilitation with quantum energy weapons.
Mortal Engines posits the reign of “traction cities,” metropolises mounted on wheels, resemble gigantic versions of the walking castles of Miyazaki, running on caterpillar tracks. They roam wild, engaging in a system called Municipal Darwinism, in which bigger cities capture and essentially consume smaller cities for resources. The continents have been pressed together, North America is a radioactive desert, while Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania are united, but separated by an insurmountable wall creating “static settlements” by an insurmountable wall.
It is in this setting that the story takes place. However, the emphasis placed on the mechanics of everything going on around the characters, Jihae, the rebel leader a young woman (Hera Hilmar) seeking personal revenge and a young man (Robert Sheenan) trying to save his skin, and both trying to save the world when the armistice between the East and West comes to an end, show us it is not the main focus of interest in the film.
One of the merits of science fiction is their merit of presenting important issues and metaphorical focus through of fantasy and visual creativity, on important themes. In Mortal Engines such themes are again the sustainability of our lifestyles, energy saving and attention to environmental issues.
What happens if we do not take care of our environment, continuing to mistreat and exploit it? This is the real underlying question in the plot. The realisation that nowadays, sustainability and energy are the two spectres most important in our culture, as was the case with the atomic bomb after the Second World War.
However, in terms of neatly wrapping up the plot the impression is that the original books have more complexity and depth that the 100 million dollars invested in the production. But, honestly, sequences like the chase that opens the film and a brief interlude upon an airborne city give it the glimmer of great fantasy adventure films.
![A traditional future. Rebel Architecture Series. [I] Image © Al Jazeera](/sites/default/files/styles/mopis_home_news_category_slider_desktop/public/lead-images/yasmeen_lari_revel_architecture_metalocus_06_1280.webp?h=1c9b88c9&itok=baj5jxLh "A traditional future. Rebel Architecture Series. [I] Image © Al Jazeera")
