Film / Crimes of the Future (2022)

Timlin: They say...surgery is the new sex.
Tenser: Hm. Does there have to be a new sex?
Timlin: Yes. Yes, it's time.

Crimes of the Future is a 2022 Body Horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, and his return to the sci-fi/horror genres for the first time since 1999’s eXistenZ, starring Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, and Scott Speedman.

In a world where human beings have evolved past pain and disease, surgery has become performance art. Saul Tenser (Mortensen) suffers from Advanced Evolution Syndrome, which causes his body to spontaneously create functionless new internal organs; his art involves having these neo-organs removed by his partner Caprice (Seydoux) in front of small, exclusive crowds.

Not to be confused with the the 1970 short film of the same name, also by David Cronenberg — there is little relation between them except for the concept of human bodies spontaneously growing new, nonfunctional organs.

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This movie features the following tropes:

• Advertised Extra: The "ear guy" received a prominent place in promotional material, but in-universe he shows up in one scene as a total poser trying to be edgy.
• Ambiguously Gay: Berst and Dani, both women, come off as a couple sometimes, especially in the suggestive scene where they strip naked before lying down against each other to ask Caprice whether the pair have a "future in performance". It may just be a close, if weird, friendship though.
• Author Avatar: Tenser has been read as a stand-in for Cronenberg himself: an artist who deals in horrific, visceral spectacles, inspiring both adulation and disgust, as well as a legion of imitators. They even have similar heads of grey hair, and Tenser is usually shown wearing all-black clothing like Cronenberg.
• Bio Punk: A lot of the machines in Saul's life look like they've been grown rather than constructed: the insectile sarcophagus, originally designed for autopsies, that he lies in for his performances; the bed he sleeps in, with organic-looking tendrils that reach down from the ceiling and attach to his extremities; and the clunky automated chair that's supposed to help him eat.
  Saul: I think this bed needs new software. It's not anticipating my pain anymore.
• Bittersweet Ending: Saul is disillusioned by the deaths of Brecken and Lang, but he finally accepts that his body is evolving and welcomes the changes — symbolized by taking a bite from one of Lang's plastic chocolate bars and not being immediately poisoned by it.
• Body Horror: David Cronenberg's return to the genre after over twenty years, and it doesn't disappoint.
  Saul: [to Detective Cope] What I'm saying with that "body art" stuff is that I don't like what's happening with the body — in particular, what's happening with my body. Which is why I keep cutting it up.
• Covert Pervert: Timlin, who works for a government agency that deals with illegal organs, soon becomes fascinated and aroused by the creation of such organs.
• Crapsack World: A world with no disease and no pain just means nobody washes their hands or cares about injuring themselves or others anymore; slashing up your partner is just another form of foreplay. Humanity's malaise is reflected through the surrounding world — every location in the film is filthy or rusted out or decaying in some way.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Berst and Dani, two female assassins with cover as technicians, murder Dr. Nasatir with power drills to the head. Later they do the same thing to Lang.
• Dark Action Girl: Berst and Dani are young women who masquerade as technicians. It turns out they're really both assassins, who kill their targets with power drills.
• Double-Meaning Title: Crimes of the Future could refer to both crimes committed in the future and crimes committed by the future, or even that said crimes are future itself.
• Fanservice Extra: Berst and Dani, two attractive young women who are supporting characters, strip naked at one point with both showing full frontal nudity (albeit briefly).
• Fantastic Diet Requirement: A group of rebels have altered themselves to eat plastic as a means of counteracting pollution.
• Fantastic Noir: While not readily apparent, the film is actually a solid example of this. Set in a Wretched Hive with corrupt officials and sadistic civilians, an eccentric performance artist is commissioned by a radical leader of La Résistance to do a show that essentially promotes the ideology of the cause. The artist also agrees to comply with a detective, who will use the performance as a means to get to the radical leader. Later on, it's revealed that the Detective went behind the artist's back and had the performance sabotaged to discredit the radical group.
• Fantastic Racism: The government is opposed to humans evolving into new distinct forms, prohibiting this by law. Brecken's mother even killed him as a result of him developing a mutation which lets him digest plastic, saying it made him inhuman.
• Feel No Pain: The majority of humanity has evolved to the point where they can't feel pain at all. We see people casually cutting themselves and each other on the streets. Saul Tenser is notorious for not being pain-resistant and cutting himself up anyway.
• Follow the Leader: In-universe, Tenser's notoriety has resulted in other performance artists who try to capture some of his success. One in particular, a man who evolves a number of vestigial ears all over his body, is shown dancing in front of an audience that includes a decidedly unimpressed Tenser.
  He's a better dancer than an artist.
• Human Subspecies: Discussed as some people's biological changes no later make them identical to "classical" humans. The government seeks to prohibit this, though a resistance group embraces the idea. Some regular humans violently oppose this to the point of murdering such divergent people.
• It's Personal: Detective Cope bears a grudge against Lang Dotrice because his partner was poisoned by eating one of Lang's synthetic candy bars.
• Lamarck Was Right: Lampshaded. Tenser points out that it should be impossible for Dotrice's son to inherit the modifications that make it possible for him to digest plastic. It still seems to be the case, though.
• La Résistance: Lang Dotrice is the leader of a radical group who — in violation of government policy — are intentionally cultivating evolutions in themselves; through surgery, they have developed the ability to subsist on industrial waste — we see them eating bars of plastic like chocolate. Tenser is asked by the police to observe and report on their activities; Lang wants to make a statement against the government by collaborating with Tenser.
• Male Frontal Nudity: Brecken, an adolescent boy, is shown nude from the front during his autopsy.
• Ms. Fanservice: Caprice is naked in a long scene, with the camero zeroing in on her breasts at length. However, it veers into fan disservice as she gets incisions on her breasts during it too.
• Mutants: Tenser, Brecken, Lang and other humans are developing in totally different ways from the norm. In the case of Tenser, he's developing new organs (albeit non-functional ones) apparently through willing it. Brecken, along with Lang and others, are now able to subsist on plastic along with other things most humans can't, with a group that embraces these changes as the future of humanity's evolution. Many other regular humans though react to this with animus and even violence.
• No Transhumanism Allowed: The government, through an agency named the National Organ Registry, is trying to prohibit humans' having biological changes that diverge from the norm, as they fear that it could mean some are evolving into new organisms. Some however embrace this as a good thing and advocate these changes.
• Offing the Offspring: Brecken Dotrice's mother does this to him in the first scene when she sees his peculiar mutation.
• Performance Artist: Saul Tenser and Caprice are a... particularly specialized couple of performance artists.
• Professional Killer: Berst and Dani pretend they're technicians. In reality, they're assassins eliminating people who violate the law on developing new organs.
• Schizo Tech: Aside from all the Bio Punk machinery around, it's hard to tell how far into the future this is taking place. Every TV screen shown in the film is a CRT. We see people at Saul's shows recording the goings-on with camcorders small enough to be worn on rings, but also with clunky Super 8 and 16-mm cameras. There's also an appearance by an Eighties-era brick cell phone.
• Shout-Out: The close-up of Tenser's Tears of Joy is a clear reference to The Passion of Joan of Arc, complete with a shift to black-and-white.
• Slimeball:
  • Timlin is a Rare Female Example. Although she's less malicious than other fictional slimeballs, she's a creepy, cagey little rodent of a person, and the film emphasizes just how skeevy she is.
  • Similarly creepy is Timlin's supervisor Whippet. When he's invited to one of Saul's shows, he walks around staring in fascination at the other members of the audience.
• Tears of Joy: Tenser sheds these at the end, when he eats the plastic candy bar, accepting his identity as a mutant.
• This Is a Drill: Berst and Dani (with cover as technicians) use drills as weapons, which they use to kill Dr. Nasatir and Lang.
• Those Two Guys: Berst and Dani, who work for the company that made Tenser's Bio Punk technology as technicians (supposedly), are never seen apart and have a friendly rapport.
• Vorpal Pillow: How young Brecken's mother kills him.
• Weird World, Weird Food: Besides the purple, plastic candy bars, all the other food we see is strangely colored mush.
• Wrench Wench: Berst and Dani are two female assassins with the cover of being technicians. The two almost always dress in coveralls, and kill their targets with power drills to the head.