Smart Card is a science fiction film about the horrors of living with modern technology. A businessman is on his way home from work in a car that drives itself, and an artificial intelligence program called Server making all of his daily decisions on where to get gas and what food to pick up at the store. Both the car and Server are run by the information on the Smart Card which looks very much like a modern credit card. The first problem arises when the business man decides he simply wants to head home and Server insists that it would be better to get gas and groceries immediately.
Clearly not in control of his own life, the man stops for gas and when he goes inside to pay he and the clerk are accosted by a Shakespearian hobo who wants to pay for a candy bar with money instead of with a smart card. When he is denied service, the businessman decides the best way to get the guy to leave is to buy the candy bar for him. His attempt fails, though, when the clerk informs him (through the smart card's info) that buying a candy bar "wouldn't be the smart decision". The businessman is irritated to find that buying the candy bar doesn't fit in with his physicians dietary restrictions, and he is forced to buy the invariably healthier Smart Bar.
The situation worsens when the hobo stealthily steals the businessman's Smart Card after a long bout of moralizing about being controlled by the government. Left without his card, Server doesn't recognize the businessman as the owner of the card, the smart card help phone won't recognize him as existing, and the gas station clerk ignores him completely. Desperate, he smashes his car window, and is arrested by the police.
Presented to a fantastically creepy Smart Card official, the businessman decides he doesn't want to have a Smart Card anymore after all the problems he's been having with it. The official says, "Is there anything we can do to make it up to you? Give you a ride home perhaps? Just give the officer your address." Suddenly the businessman realizes he doesn't know where he lives. That information was stored on the card. The official asks for his wife's phone number so they can ask her, and the businessman realizes the Smart Card is the one who knows that as well. Broken, the businessman agrees to utilize Smart Corporation's newest technology of having the card installed as a microchip straight into the hand.
The last shot of the movie shows the Smart Card in the businessman's had being used to purchase gas. The hand is then tossed aside, severed, as the businessman's car drives away. Steeped in blood, the businessman crawls across the pavement to his hand.
Smart Card is a smart movie that will make you laugh, think, and then start to worry about the dangers of letting technology get the best of you. The film doesn't come off as a preachy fable or a dire warning, but more of a "this could really happen" scenario, which allows the audience to be entertained while their thoughts are provoked at the same time.
The film has great production design and a terrific cast of supporting characters with special mention going to the villain, the gas station clerk and the help-line woman, who are all fairly creepy underneath their consumer friendly appearances.
This film is well worth seeing if you can get a chance. Whenever director James Oxford decides to make a feature, I'll be queuing to see it.
Clearly not in control of his own life, the man stops for gas and when he goes inside to pay he and the clerk are accosted by a Shakespearian hobo who wants to pay for a candy bar with money instead of with a smart card. When he is denied service, the businessman decides the best way to get the guy to leave is to buy the candy bar for him. His attempt fails, though, when the clerk informs him (through the smart card's info) that buying a candy bar "wouldn't be the smart decision". The businessman is irritated to find that buying the candy bar doesn't fit in with his physicians dietary restrictions, and he is forced to buy the invariably healthier Smart Bar.
The situation worsens when the hobo stealthily steals the businessman's Smart Card after a long bout of moralizing about being controlled by the government. Left without his card, Server doesn't recognize the businessman as the owner of the card, the smart card help phone won't recognize him as existing, and the gas station clerk ignores him completely. Desperate, he smashes his car window, and is arrested by the police.
Presented to a fantastically creepy Smart Card official, the businessman decides he doesn't want to have a Smart Card anymore after all the problems he's been having with it. The official says, "Is there anything we can do to make it up to you? Give you a ride home perhaps? Just give the officer your address." Suddenly the businessman realizes he doesn't know where he lives. That information was stored on the card. The official asks for his wife's phone number so they can ask her, and the businessman realizes the Smart Card is the one who knows that as well. Broken, the businessman agrees to utilize Smart Corporation's newest technology of having the card installed as a microchip straight into the hand.
The last shot of the movie shows the Smart Card in the businessman's had being used to purchase gas. The hand is then tossed aside, severed, as the businessman's car drives away. Steeped in blood, the businessman crawls across the pavement to his hand.
Smart Card is a smart movie that will make you laugh, think, and then start to worry about the dangers of letting technology get the best of you. The film doesn't come off as a preachy fable or a dire warning, but more of a "this could really happen" scenario, which allows the audience to be entertained while their thoughts are provoked at the same time.
The film has great production design and a terrific cast of supporting characters with special mention going to the villain, the gas station clerk and the help-line woman, who are all fairly creepy underneath their consumer friendly appearances.
This film is well worth seeing if you can get a chance. Whenever director James Oxford decides to make a feature, I'll be queuing to see it.
