I agree with Joey Paur of GeekTyrant, this movie definitely came out of nowhere, but that fits given that it’s a science fiction movie and does look like it’s set to explore the next level of this world as well as another. Proximity looks to be the tale of a young NASA scientist who is at one point abducted by extraterrestrials and then has to try and tell his story to the standard government types that look ready to make him disappear. As one might guess the chase is then on as he and his female companion attempt to elude them and tell others the story of what happened during the abduction. But one thing that definitely has to be noted as kind of typical of these types of movies is that the protagonist almost always feels the need to explore the unknown phenomena that happens in the movie because of curiosity or some other quality that keeps them from maintaining a safe distance. Ironic isn’t it? Because of that the protagonist ends up being attacked, changed, altered, or somehow marked by the attacker in some way that eventually becomes permanent and sets them on a different life path than what they were experiencing up to that point. It is a pretty standard formula, but at the same time Proximity looks as though it might skirt the edges of the formula and possibly exceed them a time or two. That would be refreshing without a doubt.
Way too often we’re given movies dealing extraterrestrial or even extra-dimensional beings that are either very benevolent and are seeking to better humanity in some way, or are insanely hostile and are ready to tear into the first human body they see. There aren’t a whole lot of happy mediums out there when it comes to alien movies since the human mindset usually goes to one extreme or the other and imagines that any being that can cross the vastness of space is either looking for intelligent life (go on and laugh it’s okay) or is seeking to dominate another species. After all, movies like E.T. are made to show that not all aliens are violent and that they do have a very genuine curiosity about earth, while movies like Predator and Independence Day make it clear that some species are just here to cause a ruckus and get all kinds of rowdy. The latter movies are usually those that a lot of people want to believe since the unknown is a scary thing for a lot of people and tends to represent danger on a level that a lot of folks aren’t fully willing to contemplate. After all, everything from War of the Worlds to Aliens has shown that some creatures are just flat out malevolent when it comes to the human race.
But Proximity has a very different feel to it already since the only real threat appears to come from the US government as they’re the ones that will likely be more aggressive and less understanding of the situation. Alex Billington of First Showing has more on this topic. It’s that same fear of the unknown that causes aggression in movies such as this since when it comes to outer space and any species that can navigate through it, some people are thinking that the technology might be great to have so that they can try to weaponize it and use it against others, while others might actually want to understand it so as to elevate the human race and ascend to the stars finally. The only problem with the latter however is that it requires a great deal of altruism that the human race has, but doesn’t always get to use as much as is desired. So far the trailer can definitely be used as a bit of commentary on what happens when something of unknown origin crash lands anywhere on earth. Obviously the US government is going to want to move in and secure it and then claim it never happened while going to great lengths to question anyone that happened to be around it while still denying it to the press and anyone else that comes looking. In a way it’s hard to deny that this hasn’t happened in real life since like it or not, conspiracies are kind of like myths and legends in a way, they might be far out of left field and they might make a lot of eyes roll, but there’s usually some bit of reality that occurred to give rise to such occurrences, and it’s usually the kind of talk or facts that ends up being buried simply because the inconvenient truth is considered too much for people to hear.
It’s at times like these I like to quote Tommy Lee Jones,“ A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”
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