Neuroethics and the Neurobiology of Moral Responsibility- Dramas
A Clockwork Orange
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Country of origin and year: UK/USA 1971
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee and Warren Clarke
Protagonist Alex is an "ultraviolent" youth in futuristic Britain. His luck eventually runs out and he's arrested and convicted of murder and rape. While in prison, Alex learns of an experimental program in which convicts are programmed to detest violence. If he goes through the program his sentence will be reduced and he will be back on the streets sooner than expected. But Alex's ordeals are far from over once he hits the mean streets of Britain that he had a hand in creating.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/
Brave New World (1980)
Director: Burt Brinckerhoff
Country of origin and year: USA, 1980
Starring: Julie Cobb, Bud Cort, Keir Dullea
In a "well- ordered" society, 600 years into the future, the citizens are required to take mind-controlling drugs, sex without love is compulsory, and test-tube babies are commonplace because of a ban on pregnancy. However, not everybody is satisfied with society's lack of humanity and feeling; the loudest dissidents are free-thinking poet Heimholtz Watson and brilliant oddball Bernard Marx. An injection of new "old" ideas are brought in by "primitive" John Savage, who lives on an Indian reservation which still honors 20th century values. Meanwhile, Linda Lysenko becomes a natural mother—and in so doing becomes a criminal.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080468/
Brave New World (1998)
Director: Leslie Libman, Larry Williams
Country of origin and year: USA, 1998
Starring: Peter Gallagher, Leonard Nimoy, Tim Guinee
In a high-tech city of a future time, humans are genetically engineered, monogamy is frowned on, and the drug Soma is consumed to eliminate stress in a society where the citizens are niched into rigid classes (Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma). Scornful looks are directed at high-level Alphas Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne, a couple who have become interested in each other beyond the commonly accepted one-night stands. When Bernard and Lenina visit an outlying Reservation, their copter crashes, and they are under attack by the locals when Shakespeare-quoting "savage" John Cooper intervenes. When John takes Bernard and Lenina to the house where he lives with his alcoholic mother Linda, Bernard is fascinated by John's retro way of life and his collection of literature.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145600/
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Director: Michael Gondry
Country of origin and year:
Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson
Ex-partners Joel and Clementine want to forget the heartbreak of their relationship, so they erase their memories of each other. But as Joel watches memories of his past with Clementine fade away, he realises he still loves her. Joel realizes he doesn't really want to forget Clementine, so he starts smuggling her away into parts of his memory where she doesn't belong which alters other things about his memories as well.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338013/
Transfer
Director: Damir Lukacevic
Country of origin and year: Germany 2010
Starring: B.J. Britt, Regine Nehy, Hans-Michael Rehberg
In the Menzana facility, wealthy customers can escape the constraints of mortality by having their consciousness and memories implanted into the minds of young, healthy bodies (largely those of immigrant Africans), who have agreed to participate in the procedure for the money their families will receive.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270120/
eXistenZ
Director: David Cronenberg
Country of origin and year: Canada, 1999
Starring: Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ian Holm
Video game designer Allegra Geller has created a virtual reality game called eXistenZ, which when downloaded into humans, accesses their central nervous system. After a crazed fan attempts to kill her, Allegra goes on the run with Ted, a young businessman who falls into the role of bodyguard. In an attempt to save her game, Allegra implants into Ted's body a video game pod carrying a damaged copy of eXistenZ. Allegra and Ted engage in a series of experiences that blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120907/
A Scanner Darkly
Director: Richard Linklater
Country of origin and year: USA, 2006
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr.
In a totalitarian society in the near future, where citizens are assumed guilty until proven innocent, undercover detective Bob Arctor is working with a drug users trying to reach the big distributors of a brain-damaging drug called Substance D; a substance which he himself is addicted to.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405296/
Total Recall (1990)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Country of origin and year:
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside
In 2020, Douglas feels he needs a break from the day-to-day life and goes to Total Recall, where memories are planted in your head to make you think you are someone else for a while a holiday in your head if you will. However, before he can be injected he begins to have flashbacks and suddenly finds that people are trying to kill him and that somehow he must get to Mars to uncover the reasons. However, what is truth and what is fake and is the whole thing really happening or not?
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100802/
The Bourne Identity
Director: Doug Liman
Country of origin and year: USA, Germany, 2002
Starring: Franka Polente, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper
The Bourne Identity is the story of a man whose wounded body is discovered by fishermen who nurse him back to health. He can remember nothing and begins to try to rebuild his memory based on clues such as the Swiss bank account, the number of which, is implanted in his hip. He soon realizes that he is being hunted and takes off on a search to find out who he is and why he is being hunted.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258463/
Moon
Director: Duncan Jones
Country of origin and year: UK, 2009
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey and Dominique McElligott
Sam Bell is the only occupant of a Moon-based manufacturing facility along with his computer and assistant, GERTY. With only three weeks left in his three-year contract, he is getting anxious to finally return to Earth. The long period of time alone however has resulted in him talking to himself for the most part, or to his plants. When he has an accident however, he wakens to find that he has been replaced by his clone who believes that he is himself. An identity crisis results for both individuals. They both also come to realize that their world is not what they thought it was.
Internet Movie Database webpage: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182345/
The Matrix
Director: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Country of origin and year: USA, 1999
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss
Thomas A. Anderson is a man living two lives. By day he is an average computer programmer and by night a hacker known as Neo. Neo has always questioned his reality, but the truth is far beyond his imagination. Neo finds himself targeted by the police when he is contacted by Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker. Morpheus awakens Neo to the real world, where most of humanity have been captured by a race of machines who imprison their minds within an artificial reality known as the Matrix. As a rebel against the machines, Neo must confront the agents: super-powerful computer programs devoted to snuffing out Neo and the entire human rebellion.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/
Inception
Director: Christopher Nolan
Country of origin and year: USA, 2010
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page
Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, an expert in stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse: their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Director: John Frankenheimer
Country of origin and year: USA, 1962
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh
Major Ben Marco is an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army. He served valiantly as a captain in the Korean war and his Sergeant, Raymond Shaw, even won the Medal of Honor. Marco has a problem however: he has a recurring nightmare where two members of his squad are killed by Shaw. When Marco learns that others in his Korean War unit have nightmares similar to his own, he realizes that something happened to all of them in Korea and that Raymond Shaw is the focal point.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056218/
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Director: Bryan Forbes
Country of origin and year: USA, 1975
Starring: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterton
Stepford Wives is about a small suburb where the women happily go about their housework - cleaning, doing laundry, and cooking gourmet meals - to please their husbands. Unfortunately, Bobbie and Joanna discover that the village's wives have been replaced with robots, and Joanna'a husband wants in on the action.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073747/
Source Code
Director: Duncan Jones
Country of origin and year: USA, Canada, France 2011
Starring: Jake Gyllenhall, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga
Helicopter pilot Colter Stevens is part of a top-secret military operation that enables him to experience the last few minutes in the life of Sean Fentress, a man who died in a commuter-train explosion. The purpose of Colter's mission is to learn the identity of the bomber and prevent a similar catastrophe. As Colter lives Sean's final moments, he becomes more certain that he can prevent the first tragedy from occurring -- as long as he doesn't run out of time.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0945513/
Solaris (1972)
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Country of origin and year: Russia, 1972
Starring: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet
The Solaris mission has established a base on a planet that appears to host some kind of intelligence, but the details are hazy and very secret. After the mysterious demise of one of the three scientists on the base, the main character is sent out to replace him. He finds the station run-down and the two remaining scientists cold and secretive. When he also encounters his wife who has been dead for ten years, he begins to appreciate the baffling nature of the alien intelligence.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069293/
Solaris (2002)
Director: Steven Soderberg
Country of origin and year: USA, 2002
Starring: George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, Ulrich Tukur
A troubled psychologist is sent to investigate the crew of an isolated research station orbiting a bizarre planet.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307479/
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Director: Sean Durkin
Country of origin and year: USA, 2011
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulsen, John Hawkes
Martha has run away from an abusive hippie-like cult where she was living as Marcy May for two years. She turns to her sister and brother-in-law who take her in and want to help her. The problem is Martha is having a hard time separating dreams from reality and when haunting memories of her past keep resurfacing, she may need more help than anyone is able to give her.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441326/
Cypher
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Country of origin and year: USA, 2002
Starring: Jeremy Northam, Lucy Liu, Nigel Bennett
Hoping for a more exciting life than the suburban drawl he currently inhabits, Morgan Sullivan takes a job as an industrial spy at Digicorp, a global computer corporation. Digicorp assigns him the duty of flying to various conventions around America, recording the speeches that are made. But when Sullivan meets a mysterious woman he begins to realize that his job may not be what it seems, as he descends into a dark underworld of brainwashing and struggles to maintain his own identity.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284978/
The Ipcress File
Director: Sidney J. Furie
Country of origin and year: UK, 1965
Starring: Michael Caine, Nigel Green Guy Doleman
A number of leading Western scientists have been kidnapped only to reappear a few days later. Unfortunately, each scientist has been brainwashed and is now completely useless. The British send their agent, Harry Palmer, to investigate. Palmer is surprised to be selected for such a mission and believes he has been chosen because he is expendable.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059319/
The Enigma of Kasper Hausmer
Director: Werner Herzog
Country of origin and year: Germany, 1974
Starring: Bruno S, Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira
This film is based upon the true and mysterious story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appeared in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to speak or walk, and bearing a strange note; he later explained that he had been held captive in a dungeon of some sort for his entire life that he could remember, and only recently was he released, for reasons unknown. His benefactor attempts to integrate him into society, with intriguing results.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071691/
Robocop (1987)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Country of origin and year: UK, 1987
Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy
Detroit - in the future - is crime-ridden and run by a massive company. The company have developed a huge crime-fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public when a cop called Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphy's body is reconstructed within a steel shell and named Robocop. The Robocop is very successful against criminals, and becomes a target of supervillain Boddicker.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093870/
The Master
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Country of origin and year: USA, 2012
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams
Freddie Quell is a troubled, boozy drifter struggling with the trauma of World War II and other inner demons ruled his life before that. On a fateful night in 1950, Freddie boards a passing boat and meets Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader (known as ‘The Master’) of a religious movement called the Cause. Freddie tries hard to adhere to Dodd's weird teachings and forms a close bond with his mentor, even as other members of Dodd's inner circle see him as a threat.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1560747/
The Final Cut
Director: Omar Naim
Country of origin and year: Australia, 2004
Starring: Robin Williams, Jim Caviezel, Mira Sorvino
The story is set in a world where implanted microchips can record all moments of an individual's life. The chips are removed upon death so the images can be edited into something of a highlight reel for loved ones who want to remember the deceased. Caviezel portrays the leader of the organization that opposes this technology's development. Robin Williams plays a cutter, someone with the power of final edit over people's recorded histories. His latest assignment is one that puts him in danger.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364343/
Charly
Director: Ralph Nelson
Country of origin and year: USA, 1968
Starring: Cliff Robertson, Claire Bloom, Lilia Skala
Charly is an intellectually disabled man, whose frequent attempts at learning, reading, and writing prove worthless. His teacher, Miss Kinian, takes Charly to the clinic where he undergoes an experiment that gives him the intelligence of a genius. Very emotional consequences are involved when Charly learns the truth of the experiment, however.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062794/
Garden State
Director: Zach Braff
Country of origin and year: UK, 2004
Starring: Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard
Andrew Largeman is a semi-successful television actor who plays a retarded quarterback. His somewhat controlling and psychiatrist father has led Andrew to believe that his mother's wheelchair bound life was his fault. When Andrew decides to lay off the drugs that his father and his doctor made him believe that he needed, he begins to see life for what it is. He began to feel the pain he had longed for and began to have a genuine relationship with a girl who had some problems of her own.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0333766/
The Mind Benders
Director: Basil Dearden
Country of origin and year: Denmark, 1963
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Mary Ure, John Clements
A British scientist is discovered to have been passing information to the Communists, then kills himself. Another scientist decides that they might have brainwashed him by a sensory deprivation technique, but he doesn't know if someone really can be convinced to act against their strongest feelings. So, he agrees to be the subject in an experiment in which others will try to make him stop loving his wife.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057311/
The Victor (Short)
Director: Phil Austin
Country of origin and year: UK, 1985
Starring: Shaun Curry, Robert Llewellyn, David Tate
Short film about mind control, war and the conditioning of young people.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2331131/
Limitless
Director: Neil Burger
Country of origin and year:
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Anna Friel, Abbie Cornish
Out-of-work writer Eddie Morra's rejection by girlfriend Lindy confirms his belief that he has zero future. That all vanishes the day an old friend introduces Eddie to NZT, a designer pharmaceutical that makes him laser focused and more confident than any man alive. Now on an NZT-fueled odyssey, everything Eddie's read, heard or seen is instantly organized and available to him. As the former nobody rises to the top of the financial world, he draws the attention of business mogul Carl Van Loon, who sees this enhanced version of Eddie as the tool to make billions. But brutal side effects jeopardize his meteoric ascent.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219289/
Paycheck
Director: John Woo
Country of origin and year: USA, Canada, 2003
Starring: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman
Michael Jennings is a top-notch reverse engineer. Corporations pay him to crack the secrets of their competitors' products. When the job is done, he has his memory of it erased. Rethrick, head of a company called Allcom, hires Jennings to reverse-engineer a secret government device. After the job, Jennings wakes from the memory erasure to find himself being chased by various agencies. He soon realizes that the fate of the entire world may be in his hands.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338337/
Johnny Mnemonic
Director: Robert Longo
Country of origin and year: UK, 1995
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren, Dina Meyer
Johnny is a data courier who has a secret stash of information implanted into his mind. However, the data will kill Johnny if he cannot retrieve it within 48 hours. Accompanied by physically enhanced bodyguard Jane, Johnny sets out to acquire the passwords he needs to save himself. Worse yet, he is hunted by gangster Shinji and businessman Takahashi, both of whom seek the data he possesses.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113481/
The Terminal Man
Director: Mike Hodges
Country of origin and year: USA, 1974
Starring: George Segal, Joan Hackett, Richard Dysart
Hoping to cure his violent seizures, a man agrees to a series of experimental microcomputers inserted into his brain but inadvertently discovers that violence now triggers a pleasurable response his brain.
Internet Movie Database webpage: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072267/