Turn on, plug in, drop out
Sleep Dealer is a 2008 cyberpunk-lite/ New Weird film directed by Alex Rivera, set in a Techno Dystopian near future marked by closed borders, rampant privatization, virtualized labor markets, and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences. In this grim, impersonal world three strangers will risk everything to break through the technological barriers that keep them apart and forge a genuine connection:
Memo Cruz lives on a small homestead with his family in Oaxaca. They're barely scraping by now that the land's ancient water supply is locked behind the Del Rio Water Company's dam. Memo dreams of the wider world and builds electronic receivers to pick up far-flung communications as a means of escape. When he accidentally taps into a frequency used by para-military drones he's branded a terrorist, with swift retaliation that sees his home bombed and his father killed in a televised spectacle. He leaves for Tijuana hoping to support his family as a "Node Worker" — one of the millions of laborers who use cybernetic implants to operate machinery halfway across the globe for meager pay.
Luz Martínez deal in memories — her own, specifically. She makes a living selling her experiences through the memory trading company TruNode while trying to put her past as an underground "coyotek" node dealer behind her. When she meets Memo on the bus to Tijuana and uploads their interaction to the net, an anonymous client hires her to delve into his story. Luz aids Memo in getting his nodes and begins a relationship with him, torn between genuine attraction to his earnest nature and guilt over her motives for pursuing him.
Rudy Ramirez is another Node Worker. He serves as a drone pilot for Del Rio Water, defending the company's interests in Mexico with lethal force from his seat at an untouchable operations center in the United States. Though he's lauded as a hero for his work, Rudy can't shake the feeling that there's something deeply wrong with his latest assignment — and once he starts digging he uncovers an ugly truth that sets him on a quest to right the wrongs he's committed.
Tropes in Sleep Dealer:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Released in 2008, the film is set in an indeterminate short-term future (perhaps 15 to 30 years) with still-familiar technology and culture — the only exception being the use of cybernetic implants called "Nodes" to connect to the "global digital network," and the widespread usage of mechanical laborers in first world countries. Conservative attitudes and closed borders in wealthy countries have halted most forms of immigration, resulting in minimum wage jobs being performed by millions of "tele-migrants" based in poorer nations that operate robotic avatars to cook, clean, farm and build for wealthy countries.
- Attack Drone: Drones piloted by operatives thousands of miles away are deployed to use lethal force against suspected terrorists ( or really anyone who threatens privatized resources). Footage of the drones is even broadcast on live television in a show called "DRONES!", glorifying the exploits of the pilots. Memo's home is destroyed and his father is killed when Rudy's squad of drones is dispatched to track down and eliminate the terrorist hacker (i.e. Memo) that tapped into their communications.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Memo gets his Nodes implanted (or a "Node job") in the back of a seedy bar in Tijuana after learning that the price to have a doctor perform the surgery licitly far exceeds his means. Luz once worked as a "Coyotek" (a portmanteau of "Coyote
" (i.e. illegal people smuggler) and "Techie") who provided illicit Node jobs to those willing to pay. She carries out the procedure for Memo as a favor, and it's implied that no-one involved has a medical degree. - Brain/Computer Interface: The ubiquitous Nodes are implants that allow people to directly interface with the "global digital network", whether that be uploading their memories to the net or piloting robotic avatars half the world away.
- Capitalism Is Bad: Overlaps with Cybernetics Eat Your Soul, see below.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Memo catches a broadcast of "DRONES!" (an American reality television program depicting live conquests of drone pilots who “blow the hell out of the bad guys”) while out of the house. His family home appears in the crosshairs of the live footage.
- Corporate Warfare: Del Rio Water uses deadly force to defend their holdings in Mexico. The dam is guarded by automated machine guns and armed guards, and Del Rio sends military-grade drones to attack and kill a "suspected terrorist" that tapped into their communications frequency.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Downplayed — The world of Sleep Dealer sees widespread use of cybernetic "Nodes" installed on the surface of the skin (usually the arms and shoulders) for interfacing with the digital network. Luz uses them to upload her memories to the net, while Memo and Rudy both use their nodes to pilot machines thousands of miles away. It's not so much the cybernetics that erode their humanity as it is the commodification of their labor and lives that the nodes aggravate:
- Memo goes to work at a "Sleep Dealer," a notoriously Dangerous Workplace where tele-migrants risk exhaustion and literal burnout on the daily to operate robotic avatars thousands of miles away for meager pay. The workplaces are cybernetic sweatshops where tele-migrants aren't even treated with the dignity of employees: they've been reduced to batteries or components in the machinery they operate.
- Luz is a "writer," someone who uses nodes to upload experiences and memories to the net and sells them for profit. When she uploads her first meeting with Memo on the bus from Oaxaca to Tijuana, Rudy pays handsomely for the footage and pre-finances her next memory upload of Memo. Luz goes on to develop a relationship with Memo, but their connection is tainted by the fact that she's secretly being paid to spend time with him and learn about his history. TruNode pushes Luz to upload not just her memories of Memo, but also her feelings. Even with her genuine love for Memo, the commodification of their relationship is what eventually causes them to split up, with Memo feeling betrayed by Luz selling their relationship to an anonymous viewer.
- Rudy works as a node-enhanced drone pilot. He earns good money and public acclaim for protecting the interests of his corporate sponsor, bombing "terrorists" who threaten the privatized resources owned by companies like Del Rio Water from the safety of his cockpit thousands of miles away. Rudy has no reason to question the morality of his position until he finds Luz's encounter with Memo uploaded to TruNode. The idea that he might have killed an innocent man drives him to seek out Memo so he can learn the truth, and then attempt to make amends with his same drone-piloting skills.
- Cyberpunk: Downplayed — the cyberpunk trappings (cheap and widespread Brain/Computer Interface implants, back-alley surgery, robotic avatars, commercialization of memory, etc...) present in the film all serve to reinforce the central theme of "connection" (and the Capitalism Is Bad message).
- Cyborg Helmsman: Zig-Zagged — with immigration having been reduced to near zero, poor countries host a massive workforce of people with cybernetic implants who remotely pilot robotic avatars that have replaced the "unskilled" labor positions those workers would have otherwise taken in richer nations. Every robotic taxi driver, orange picker, and construction worker is directly operated by a human in a Node-sweatshop halfway around the world. Even paramilitary enforcement is carried out by pilots with those same cybernetic implants flying unmanned drones thousands of miles away.
- Dangerous Workplace: "Sleep Dealers" are warehouse where impoverished tele-migrants plug themselves in to control mechanical avatars thousands of miles away in wealthy countries. The Node Workers operate in cramped, airless corridors. Their eyes are glazed over by contact lens screens that transmit footage from their remote worksites. Their mouths covered by masks that keep them from talking. They stand in one place for hours on end with no breaks, waving their arms and shifting their bodies to control their distant avatars. On a good day workers end their shift at the Sleep Dealer totally drained of energy, shambling off to their cramped barracks like zombies to get a few hours of rest. It's not uncommon to see a worker collapsing in their cybernetic cradles and needing to be carried off the floor so another Node Worker can take their place. On a bad day a worker might end up blinded by the contact lenses or electrocuted by a cheap harness.
- Defector from Decadence: When Rudy discovers that he killed Memo's father (an innocent man) on Del Rio Water's orders, he crosses the heavily fortified US-Mexico border to apologize to Memo and take revenge on Del Rio. With Memo and Luz's help, Rudy is able to hack into Del Rio's security network and take control of an armed drone. He uses the drone to destroy Del Rio's dam in Oaxaca, allowing water to flow freely to the Cruz family farm. Having betrayed Del Rio, Rudy goes on the run in Mexico.
- Industrial Ghetto: Memo goes to Tijuana to find work. He winds up living in one of the crowded shacks in the shantytown inhabited by other poor Node Workers.
- Military Science Fiction: The portion of the story that follows Rudy is classic Military Science Fiction, albeit with Rudy coming to the realizing that his work as a drone pilot is more horrific than heroic and that his skills were used to murder innocent civilians while defending corporate interests.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Rudy discovers that he killed an innocent man (Memo's father) on Del Rio's orders. His guilt drives him to travel to Mexico and make amends to Memo.
- Playful Hacker: Memo builds receivers that can tap into communications from faraway cities as a hobby and a means to distract himself from the bleak future his family faces on their farmstead.
- Power Perversion Potential: Luz mentions that her coyotek ex-boyfriend taught her about Nodes and helped her get her own installed so that they could have "connected sex." Later, Luz and Memo use their Node implants to do the same.
- Privately Owned Society: Privatization is rampant, with the most prominent example being the acquisition of water rights in Oaxaca by the Del Rio Water Company. Memo's father still remembers a time when the water flowed freely.
- Techno Dystopia: Node technology enables individuals to puppeteer mechanical avatars to do the heavy lifting of building skyscrapers, or to fly unmanned aircraft for surveillance missions. Except the workers who drive those mechanical avatars are impoverished third-world nationals who get paid pennies to work in cybernetic sweatshops, and the aircraft are armed drones that use lethal force to defend privatized resources like water.
- Title Drop: The sweatshops where Node Workers go to plug themselves in and puppeteer machinery thousands of miles away are called "Sleep Dealers" because workers risk exhaustion and collapse if they remain online for too long.
- Transferable Memory: Luz makes a living selling her memories to TruNode, a service that runs much like a stock photo website for memories. She also mails Memo some of her memories of their time spent together as an apology for selling the memory of their first meeting. Sharing memories is depicted as an inexpensive (discounting the cost of getting a Node job) and unremarkable procedure.
- Unusual User Interface: The Nodes are ostensibly a Brain/Computer Interface that can be installed on the surface of a person's skin (mostly seen on shoulders and arms for ease of access) with surgery that takes minutes and can be performed in the back of a seedy bar. Despite being nowhere near the brain, the implants allow users interface directly with the "global digital network" by uploading memories or controlling the finest movements of a robotic avatar half a world away. This is accomplished by plugging glowing fiberoptic cables into the Nodes.
- Wetware CPU: Zig-Zagged — there are no advanced robotic intelligences in the world of Sleep Dealer. It's cheaper and easier to hire tele-migrants from poor countries to operate robotic puppets thousands of miles away than it is to program a computer to perform complex tasks like building a skyscraper or taking care of a human child.
