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Cloud Atlas

  • 2012
  • R
  • 2h 52m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
381K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,542
122
Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Bae Doona, Jim Sturgess, and Ben Whishaw in Cloud Atlas (2012)
An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
Play trailer2:34
24 Videos
99+ Photos
CyberpunkDystopian Sci-FiPsychological DramaSci-Fi EpicDramaMysterySci-FiThriller

As souls are born and reborn, they renew their connections to one another throughout the ages.As souls are born and reborn, they renew their connections to one another throughout the ages.As souls are born and reborn, they renew their connections to one another throughout the ages.

  • Directors
    • Tom Tykwer
    • Lana Wachowski
    • Lilly Wachowski
  • Writers
    • David Mitchell
    • Lana Wachowski
    • Tom Tykwer
  • Stars
    • Tom Hanks
    • Halle Berry
    • Hugh Grant
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    381K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    1,542
    122
    • Directors
      • Tom Tykwer
      • Lana Wachowski
      • Lilly Wachowski
    • Writers
      • David Mitchell
      • Lana Wachowski
      • Tom Tykwer
    • Stars
      • Tom Hanks
      • Halle Berry
      • Hugh Grant
    • 1.1KUser reviews
    • 480Critic reviews
    • 55Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 15 wins & 79 nominations total

    Videos24

    U.S. Version -- #1
    Trailer 2:34
    U.S. Version -- #1
    Extended First Look
    Trailer 5:43
    Extended First Look
    Extended First Look
    Trailer 5:43
    Extended First Look
    Cloud Atlas
    Trailer 2:24
    Cloud Atlas
    "A Multitude of Drops"
    Featurette 6:18
    "A Multitude of Drops"
    Directors' Commentary
    Featurette 2:24
    Directors' Commentary
    Cloud Atlas: A Multitude Of Drops (UK Featurette)
    Featurette 6:21
    Cloud Atlas: A Multitude Of Drops (UK Featurette)

    Photos257

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    Top cast70

    Edit
    Tom Hanks
    Tom Hanks
    • Dr. Henry Goose…
    Halle Berry
    Halle Berry
    • Native Woman…
    Hugh Grant
    Hugh Grant
    • Rev. Giles Horrox…
    Hugo Weaving
    Hugo Weaving
    • Haskell Moore…
    Jim Broadbent
    Jim Broadbent
    • Captain Molyneux…
    Jim Sturgess
    Jim Sturgess
    • Adam Ewing…
    Bae Doona
    Bae Doona
    • Tilda…
    Ben Whishaw
    Ben Whishaw
    • Cabin Boy…
    Keith David
    Keith David
    • Kupaka…
    James D'Arcy
    James D'Arcy
    • Young Rufus Sixsmith…
    Xun Zhou
    Xun Zhou
    • Talbot (Hotel Manager)…
    David Gyasi
    David Gyasi
    • Autua…
    Susan Sarandon
    Susan Sarandon
    • Madame Horrox…
    Robert Fyfe
    Robert Fyfe
    • Old Salty Dog…
    Martin Wuttke
    Martin Wuttke
    • Mr. Boerhaave…
    Robin Morrissey
    Robin Morrissey
    • Young Cavendish
    Brody Nicholas Lee
    Brody Nicholas Lee
    • Javier Gomez
    • (as Brody Lee)
    • …
    Ian van Temperley
    Ian van Temperley
    • Enforcer
    • Directors
      • Tom Tykwer
      • Lana Wachowski
      • Lilly Wachowski
    • Writers
      • David Mitchell
      • Lana Wachowski
      • Tom Tykwer
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews1.1K

    7.4381.3K
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    Featured reviews

    torontodog

    The Wachowskis join forces with Tom Tykwer and overhaul the meaning of the word Epic!

    Kudos to all the filmmakers for adapting this famously "unfilmable" novel in such an inventive way. There are SIX separate timelines that switch after every scene, but instead of the plot, the narrative continuity follows the theme of the film. Once you clue in to that overall theme, it is no longer confusing when the story jumps from a runaway slave in the 1800s to a post apocalyptic future battle between some of the last humans remaining on earth.

    All this audacious style and structure makes Cloud Atlas a curiosity to say the least, but the film is lifted to the realm of "Masterpiece" by the all-star ensemble cast. This impressive collection of actors fires off amazing performances like the Expendables 2 fires off high caliber bullets. I mean this will long be considered one of the greatest acting clinics ever filmed, and a high point in some already outstanding careers, as the end credits alone are astonishing to watch.

    Overall this is a movie that transcends the simple elements of stars and plots and special effects, and boldly assumes to take the cinema to another level of storytelling, much like Avatar took film to a new level of technology a few years ago. The ambition, the technical brilliance and the passion that was put into this film makes it one of the great epics of our time.
    8bshears99

    A bold, audacious tour-de-force in cinematic storytelling

    This movie is a fusion of several genres (drama, adventure, sci-fi, comedy, romantic tragedy) as well as an attempt for an art-house cerebral movie to attain commercial blockbuster status. In my opinion it mostly succeeds, but finding a large mainstream audience is its biggest challenge to be met (at this point, before wide release).

    Imagine taking six short (but big-budget) films with different stories and directors and combining them into an anthology feature, united by a common theme and cast of actors in different roles, and then editing the entire thing out of sequence. The "nested" narrative of the book has been re-arranged for the sake of the visual medium of film, and after first being introduced to the 6 worlds, it's not that hard to keep track of who's who, what's what and where & when. Frankly, it's a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination for Best Editing - it works very well considering the challenge of making it flow coherently.

    The cinematography, set & art design, music score and performances range from good to great. The make-up in some cases created a distraction (a Korean woman transformed into a red-haired Caucasian; Hugo Weaving as a buxom female nurse) but it adds a bit of fun to the experience. There's a smörgåsbord of material here for most people: human drama, mystery, violence, sex, adventure, farcical comedy, gloomy sci-fi and occasional romance (both gay and straight). It's 6 movies for the price of one! Just be ready to spend almost 3 hours in your seat and suffer a bit of whiplash as the transitions can get frenetic at times, with multiple cliff-hangers happening simultaneously. Like a good roller-coaster, it has its lulls and rushes. Some might find the finale a bit conventional, sappy or anti-climactic. But there's no denying this is a big, expensive gamble on the part of the Wachowskis and their producers. Hopefully it'll achieve the kind of success they got with the first "Matrix" and not the fate of the abysmal "Speed Racer." (PS I saw the film at its world premiere at TIFF.)
    8zapata_36

    A Powerful Spectacle

    I didn't find it to be a mess at all, and it was certainly the best thing the Wachowskis have ever done. I'm not sure how the directing duties were distributed, so I'll uniformly praise Tom Tykwer as well.

    I haven't read the book, so I can't make any comparisons there, but I don't often leave a film adaptation wanting to read the novel afterwards, as I did after seeing this.

    Visually stunning, epic in scope, a strong score; the sort of film that you're constantly amazed was ever made and happy it was. Equal parts comedy, romance, thriller, and dystopian speculative fiction, it really is an astounding mix of disparate elements.

    The biggest overall failure was definitely some of the make-up effects - trying to turn Doona Bae into a believable red-headed Caucasian woman was simply distracting - but the overall art & sound design was incredible.

    If I could turn channels while watching TV and switch between stories and narratives as seamlessly and as deftly as the editing in Cloud Atlas, it would honestly be hard to go back to simply watching one show at a time.

    Truly a marvel of multitasking on so many levels. Great stuff.
    6DragoonKain

    A Potentially Great Film Ruined By Poor Structure

    I never read the book, but was intrigued by this movie because I had heard the book was very good. I don't have as much time to read as I used to, so I watched it, sort of liked it but found it kind of tedious to get through due to all the jumping around from story to story. Seeing the different actors as different characters was more distracting than anything, and the film was paced too quickly allow the average viewer to pick up all the complexities and themes the author was likely trying to convey.

    In the end, I found that it had a couple of good and original story- lines (particularly the Escape from the Nursing home plot, and the gay composer plot was good) but I found the other stories to be of the mostly bland and formulaic sort we've seen many times before (ie. guy finds out slavery is bad, investigative reporter uncovers a plot by an evil corporation, bladerunner/soilent green hybrid plot, and a fairly standard post-apocalyptic adventure story plot). While all of the story lines were entertaining, you never have enough time to become invested in each story or characters because the movie constantly jumped around between the six different plots. Yes, there are six different plots in this two and half hour movie, and therein lies there problem.

    After having watched the movie, I looked up the plot of the book because I was curious to see how the author handled the story. According to Wikipedia, In the book:

    "Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read (or observed) by the main character in the next. The first five stories are interrupted at a key moment. After the sixth story, the other five stories are returned to and closed, in reverse chronological order, and each ends with the main character reading or observing the chronologically previous work in the chain. Eventually, readers end where they started, with Adam Ewing in the nineteenth century South Pacific. Each story contains a document, movie or tradition that also appears in a previous story. It shows how history not only repeats itself, but also connects to people in all time periods and places."

    For the life of me, I can't figure out why the directors didn't structure the movie this way. It would have worked far better. The audience would have been able to become more immersed in each story- line, and the connections between each plot would have been more apparent. As it stands, upon one viewing, it seems more like a mess that tries too hard to be clever. So then you might say "you have to watch it more than once to 'get it'". I don't want to have to watch a film more than once "get it". I paid close attention the first time. I'd rather spend my time doing something other than watching an average movie more than once. It's a sign of poor story telling if you make it so that you have to watch a film more than once in order to "get it".

    This film could have been so much better if it was structured like the book and took its time to actually tell the stories and develop the characters. Instead it was paced like an action movie. I felt like I was watching Inception at times (another annoying film that you "had to watch more than once in order to 'get it'"). Perhaps it was structured this way due to a limited running time. But why even attempt to merge six completely different stories into a single movie in the first place? It would lend itself much better to a mini-series. Game of Thrones is the perfect example of a book adaptation that proved to be an immense success when told at a television show's pace. I feel like this movie would have benefited greatly if it was separated episodically like that.

    Before you respond to this with elitist statements like: "I got it first watch, you're just too dumb to understand catch all the intricacies," or "the average viewer is a moron, that's why they need all the themes and messages spoon fed to them. This film treats the audience like it has intelligence and allows to viewer to draw their own conclusions." I just want to pre-emptively say "no you're wrong". The reason I think this film was a disappointment was precisely because it treated the audience like morons who just wanted to see fast paced action with no deep exploration of the themes or characters. It didn't give the audience a chance to think about any of the themes because it was too busy rapidly jumping between story-lines focusing more on action scenes rather than any sort character development. Supposedly the Tom Hanks soul goes through a whole redemption arc that I never caught because the film never actually focused on it. I haven't even read the book, yet, on first viewing, it felt like none of the major themes of the book were explored with any sort of depth. It's a shame because it seems like the book is a good one worth reading. I'm probably not going to read it now though since the movie spoiled the plots for me.

    That being said, I would say this film is worth a redbox rental at least. It has some good acting and some nice cinematography and special effects. It looks very pretty. The action is also quite good, although I wish there was a little less focus on the action, and more of a focus on the philosophical themes and characters.
    7planktonrules

    It's one of the most unique films I've ever seen.

    At nearly three hours long AND with a strange and difficult to comprehend plot, I can see exactly why "Cloud Atlas" lost a ton of money. In the States, it only brought in about $27,000,000---yet cost $100,000,000 to make. Much of the high cost is undoubtedly due to the cast--as the film boasts some famous and high-paid actors (including Tom Hanks and Halle Berry). It's a shame really, as the film does have some nice thing to offer...though overall, it was a problematic film to watch.

    The film consists of many different stories that all occur many different times in history (both in the past and very distant future). And, instead of being told in sequence, they are interlaced throughout the film. Why and what these plots all have to do with each other is something the audience is left to discover or create within themselves. However, many will get frustrated because for some time, the film doesn't give you a lot of clues at to what it all means.

    Despite being confusing and hard to grasp, the film has several things I loved. The stars of the film all play multiple roles and you'll see many of them in many stories. This provides the actors a chance to show off their talents--especially because many times they need to effect accents and/or play the opposite gender!! Yes, most of the main cast members play men AND women. Now this never would have worked if the acting was bad and the makeup was bad--but they really shine in this film. I was blown away by the makeup and thought several of the female characters were women when they weren't--it was that convincing. Additionally, while I was a bit cold about the overall film, I did appreciate how novel the movie was--very, very unique.

    So how might I have wanted the movie to be instead? Well, the many stories frustrated me because some of them were really, really compelling--and seeing only bits and pieces of them was annoying. I really wanted to see the whole story of many of the stories and could have seen the filmmakers making four or five films instead of just one. I particularly liked the stories about the replicant as well as the one where Hanks played a thug author (his acting was really nice here).

    My advice is that this film demands a viewer who is very, very patient, content with ambiguity and who wants to see a nice experimental film-- warts and all. Worth seeing but odd to say the least.

    NOTE: Parents, this film is NOT appropriate for kids. It clearly earns its R rating for some extremely graphic violence and sex. While the sex is sometimes steamy, the violence is what troubles me most for anyone crazy enough to let kids watch this one.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In 2005, while on the London set of V for Vendetta (2005), Natalie Portman gave a copy of the original novel to Lana Wachowski, who became deeply interested in it. A year later, both Wachowski siblings wrote a first draft of the screenplay. Tom Tykwer, a friend of the Wachowskis, was invited to co-author several subsequent drafts with them in the following two years, constantly keeping in mind observations by the book's author himself, David Mitchell, while looking for international investors. In all those years, Portman was promised the role of Sonmi-451, but had to turn down the role at the last minute after becoming pregnant in 2010; however, she is given a special thanks in the closing credits.
    • Goofs
      The 1849 slave trade contract that Ewing was bringing back to his Father in the states was unenforceable. The slave trade had been outlawed in the United States on January 1, 1808, the first date permitted by the Constitution. The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (2 Stat. 426, enacted March 2, 1807). Slaves could no longer be imported into the United States. The slave trade was dead. Likewise, California was a "free state" where owning slaves was outlawed in 1849.
    • Quotes

      Sonmi-451: Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.

    • Crazy credits
      When a montage is shown of all the characters the actors play, the font of the names changes with each time period.
    • Connections
      Featured in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #21.21 (2012)
    • Soundtracks
      Looking For Freedom
      Music by Jack White

      Lyrics by Gary Cowtan

      Performed by David Hasselhoff

      © by Radiomusic - International (50% for Germany/Austria/Switzerland) / Young Music Publishing (Remaining World)

      Courtesy of Universal Music Publishing Group (Germany)

      Mit Freundlicher Genehmigung von Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH

      Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH

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    FAQ23

    • How long is Cloud Atlas?Powered by Alexa
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    • What is the music played in the extended trailer?
    • Who directed which segments?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 26, 2012 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • Germany
      • Hong Kong
      • Singapore
      • China
      • United Kingdom
      • Spain
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • English
      • Spanish
      • Ukrainian
      • Korean
    • Also known as
      • Vân Đồ
    • Filming locations
      • Port de Sóller, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
    • Production companies
      • Cloud Atlas Productions
      • X-Filme Creative Pool
      • Anarchos Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $102,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $27,108,272
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $9,612,247
      • Oct 28, 2012
    • Gross worldwide
      • $130,516,424
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 52 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • DTS
      • SDDS
      • Dolby Surround 7.1
      • Dolby Atmos
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39:1

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