If you'd like to be totally surprised by the Black Box film, I don't recommend you to watch the trailer beyond 0:41, because there will be some minor spoilers.
Black Box, movie (2020) - Watch the trailer on YouTube
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Article updated: 2022.06.08
The Black Box (2020) is a sci-fi thriller film. The movie was reviewed by Kadmon.
Product: Black Box, movie (2020)
Original title: Black Box
Series: -
Other adaptations of the story: -
Setting: alternate / fantasy Earth
Product type: Film, Genre: sci-fi thriller, Style: sci-fi, thriller, medical thriller
Release: 2020.10.06
Reviewer: Kadmon, Type: Male, 40s, Preferences: Immersive, logical story, consistent setting, prefers surprises to spoilers, prefers establishing elements before referencing them
Watched: very recent (2022.05), first time
Rating: Average (2 out of 3 points), Enjoyment: Weak (2- out of 3 points)
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This is my review of Black Box, a sci-fi thriller movie from 2020. It's about a man with memory problems due to an accident, who agrees to get an experimental treatment in order to get his former life back. The Black Box film has some interesting elements, but I only recommend it to fans of the genre.
Black Box, movie (2020)
image © Amazon Content Services
Review (spoiler-free) - Black Box, movie (2020)
I didn't know anything about Black Box before sitting down to watch it. I've run into it, and the premise looked like it could be interesting. I didn't read any reviews, and I didn't watch the trailer.
The Black Box movie is about a man with memory problems due to an accident, who agrees to get an experimental treatment in order to get his former life back.
The concept of the story is good, but the science part of this science fiction is weak. The story has some unexpected twists. The consistency is mostly okay. There are no real character arcs. There are no major logical problems with the plot if you accept the premise of a fantasy setting.
The cinematography is okay, although it's far from interesting visually.
We don't get to know the characters, not even the main protagonist. They are portrayed fine by the actors. My only complaint about the choice of actors is that some of them looked very similarly, but I assume this was done intentionally.
The music (by Brandon Roberts) is okay, but not memorable.
Black Box is a watchable sci-fi thriller, that I think fans of the genre would enjoy.
My experience
I was not entirely satisfied with Black Box (2020). I happen to like science fiction stories with plausible and interesting plots, and Black Box couldn't deliver that.
Rating: Average (2 out of 3 points). Black Box is a watchable film.
Enjoyment: Weak (2- out of 3 points). Black Box has some interesting twists, but overall, I couldn't enjoy it.
Rewatchability: I'm not sure. I think it's mostly the surprise of the story that makes you feel interested, and there's very little that would be interesting to see for a second time.
Chance of watching it again: No.
Chance of watching a sequel: I'd probably watch it, although it has to be really good to make it interesting after the first one.
Black Box, movie (2020)
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Will you enjoy this?
If you like mystery or thriller movies, you might like Black Box, even though the movie doesn't lend many opportunities to come up with your own answers.
If you prefer horror movies, this film might disappoint you, as there's very little horrifying content.
If you like scientific / medical research stories (Andromeda Strain), you might like Black Box, although the focus is not really on the research.
If you like jump scare movies, you might enjoy this, although you'd have to wait long stretches of time between those.
If you can get through the first half hour of the movie still interested, the rest of the movie will be something similar.
If you don't mind illogical or impossible elements in your movies, you will be able enjoy this.
If you like twists, there are some of that in the Black Box movie.
If you prefer visuals over story, you'll be bored by the Black Box film.
If you hate depiction of violence, you should probably avoid Black Box, as although there's not many violent scenes, they are essential parts of the story.
Watching for plot points
If you are interested in medical research stories, it might be worth watching the Black Box movie for the plot points, although reading the plot summary might be just enough.
Should you watch this on your own screen at home, or is it worth going to the cinema?
The visuals probably look the same.
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Black Box, movie (2020)
image © Amazon Content Services
Review with spoilers - Black Box, movie (2020)
I didn't really like the Black Box movie.
Cover
The cover of the movie is okay, it doesn't say much, but it doesn't spoil the movie.
After you watch the movie, the spoiler becomes obvious, but before knowing the twist, I don't think it would bother anyone's enjoyment.
The trailer
The trailer is mostly okay, although it contains minor spoilers for the movie.
If you prefer spoilers, it's a great trailer for the Black Box film. If you prefer to avoid spoilers, it will make the movie less enjoyable for you.
Promise of the first scene
A man watches videos and photos about his daughter, when he feels like he is attacked by someone. It's probably just an anxiety attack, as his daughter tells him that she is ready to go. I assume that the man has some problems (probably PTSD?), and he'll have to deal with it during the movie. It will probably also endanger his family, so he'll have to make sure to protect them.
Execution: Well, we got something like this. Not in any way that I had imagined, so I was surprised.
Black Box, movie (2020)
image © Amazon Content Services
Plot summary / Synopsis
A man (Mamoudou Athie as Nolan Wright) prepares to go to a job interview. His daughter (Amanda Christine as Ava Wright) helps him with the preparations, as he seems to be forgetful. That's probably due to some problems with his memory. His daughter tries to have their secret handshake with him, but he doesn't remember it. It's the girl who takes care of most of the household chores.
The man meets with his former boss, but they say that his work is not what it used to be, so he's not accepted back to work.
The man talks to his brother? friend? (Tosin Morohunfola as Dr. Gary Yeboah), who is a doctor, who recommends him that he could accept the offer of another doctor, who specialised in memory problems. It is revealed that the man got into a car accident that killed his wife, and causes severe brain trauma to him.
The memory doctor (Phylicia Rashad as Dr. Lilian Brooks), hypnotises the man, and after that, she tells him that his memories are intact, and that she can bring them back.
After getting back home, the man forgets to go to fetch his daughter from school. A teacher brings her home, threatening that she'll alert the Child Services if this happens again.
Next day, he accepts to get into the therapy. He gets into a machine that reads his brain waves to be able to visualise his memories. He gets put into a hypnosis, and has to visualise a safe room. The memory doctor warns him that she can only bring him back from the safe room. He also has to visualise a watch - whenever he changes the time on the watch, he'll get into a different memory.
He gets into the memory of his wedding, but all the faces are blurred. The memory is disturbed by a strange man, walking backwards on all fours. He gets out. The memory doctor tells him that next time he should stay until the faces are clear, and that he shouldn't be afraid of the strange man.
The next time he tries to calm his crying baby daughter, then he sees his crying wife. Both have blurred faces. The strange man appears, and he gets out of the memory. He mentions that even though the home felt familiar to him, it was not the home where he lived with his wife. Although he doesn't tell it to the memory doctor, but he visits his brother, and asks him if he had ever beat his wife, because he had the feeling that he was violent with his wife, and that's why she was crying. His brother tells him that he was never violent.
After the session, he cruises the streets, trying to find the place he had seen in his memory. He manages to find it. He even finds the flat, where a small girl (Nyah Marie Johnson as Ashley Brooks) lives, with her mother (Charmaine Bingwa as Miranda Brooks), who looks like the woman in his memory. He also has a memory of falling off the stairs.
His brother takes a look on his medical papers, and it shows that he was thought to be brain dead, before he regained consciousness. He asks around, and it turns out that when he was brain dead, the memory doctor took him to her lab, and that's where he regained consciousness.
The next time at the memory doctor, he is back at the wedding. The creature attacks him. He doesn't give up, but switches to another memory - when he tries to calm the crying daughter. The creature attacks him, but now he fights back, knocking the creature out. He switches to another memory, when he is in a hospital, with a woman. He finally sees the face of the woman. Then he goes back to the crying daughter memory, and sees that the woman is not his wife. The woman at the wedding is also not his wife, but it's the mother he'd seen in that flat.
He realises that these are not his memories. He looks into the mirror, and sees another face, because he is another person (Donald Watkins as Thomas Brooks). He also realises that the memory doctor is his mother.
The memory doctor confesses that when his son died, he downloaded his EEG, and waited for a perfect patient to upload his consciousness. The machine that allowed this is the Black Box of the title. He was away for two years.
He feels distanced from the daughter that's not his, so he decides to send her away to the brother.
Then he visits his former wife, first, pretending to be a friend of her husband, but then he reveals the whole thing. It turns out that she is not that happy for this turn of events, as she was glad that her violent husband was gone from their lives. When he starts to threaten her and her daughter, the former wife hits him in the head.
Then suddenly he is with the daughter again, with his head bleeding. He goes to the memory doctor, who puts him under hypnosis, so he could fight in his mind with the former owner of his body. Suddenly the daughter and the brother of his body burst into the room. He suddenly has a memory that he died while beating his wife and daughter, and he was pushed by them off the stairs. He comes to the realisation that he was a monster, and it's better if he dies, so he leaves the safe room, and goes into the void.
When the man wakes up, he greets his daughter with their secret handshake. They go home, leaving the memory doctor. All of his memories return.
The memory doctor gets fired from the hospital, but we see that she is still experimenting with the saved brain waves. She even comes to some new breakthrough before the end.
The setting
Contemporary alternate / fantasy Earth, where it is possible to download the memories of people from their brains, and upload it into the brains of others.
The Black Box
It is able to download the memories of people through an EEG machine. It is stored in a computer. Then the memory can be uploaded into brain dead people.
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Black Box, movie (2020)
image © Amazon Content Services
Analysis of the story - Black Box, movie (2020)
I didn't really like the story, as the many problems with the dramatic structure and internal logic prevented me from enjoying Black Box.
The movie is very slow. At 50 minutes, I started to get bored. At 60 minutes, it started to get interesting again, so cutting ten minutes from the beginning would improve the movie for me. Then it started to become boring again. The whole story would have been better if it were cut to about an hour or so.
After the brother reading his files, I suspected that it's not his memories we are seeing, but another soul took his brain dead body. And that the creature he sees is his own body, crippled by the car accident. Or the body of the other guy, who fell off the stairs. After a couple of minutes this was quickly confirmed, so the movie didn't even leave some time to contemplate on this.
The message of the story
I'm not sure there's one. "Don't be violent towards your loved ones"? or "Don't resurrect violent people, because they won't change even in a new life"?
The structure of the story
The scenes of the Black Box film are mostly played in sequence, following the same storyline. There are some flashback scenes throughout the movie.
There's no single viewpoint character, although we see most of the story through the protagonist.
It has the usual arc of the dramatic structure - introduction, action, resolution. It ends with a soft cliffhanger, probably teasing a potential sequel.
Things I liked
- The movements of the creature looked good. (Although we have seen plenty of contortionists in recent horror stories.)
Problematic elements
Brain dead memory visualisation: Technically, people, who are brain dead, don't have brain activity. So, you can't really make a visualisation of that non-existent activity. Unless we are talking about something paranormal.
Forgetting about getting his daughter: He seems to be using a smartphone constantly. It's very easy to set up alarms, and there are even smartphone apps for people who have problems with their memory, to remind them of important things.
The teacher bringing the daughter home: The school is more than likely to have his phone number, so they could just call him when he is late, instead of bringing the daughter home.
The memories: We basically see two memories - the wedding, and the crying girl. It might have been more interesting to delve into other memories that would be the foundation of the character of Thomas.
Getting back the control of the body: If the original owner of the body was brain dead, it probably means that he also lost his memories. Otherwise, the presence of his memory would have clashed with the new personality that was uploaded. So, when the new personality was removed, that would have probably just left the brain dead body, the one that was originally used.
Unanswered questions
- Why did the hospital get rid of the memory doctor? Did somebody accuse her? Was it Nolan or Gary? Or somebody else?
- What happened with the memory machine, just before the movie ended?
- How many copies did the memory doctor make of her son? Was the body of Nolan the first and only one she used?
- Will the memory doctor use the memory machine to create further copies of her son?
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How does it compare to the other works of the creators?
I haven't seen any other works of the writer (Stephen Herman & Oleg Malovichko) or the writer / director (Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour).
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Possibilities of improvement
- Cutting it shorter, to maintain the interest of the audience.
How it could have been better?
Make some connection between Nolan and Thomas. The audience could get introduced to both families, so we could find out about the twist for ourselves, instead of just being told.
We should get an early picture of Thomas, and that it's a good thing we got rid of him. It's only his mother who loved him, everyone else loathed his aggressive personality. So, when we find it out that Thomas is inside the body of Nolan, we immediately have an opinion of him, instead of spending another half an hour to build this up.
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Behind the scenes
Thoughts about the reviews of others
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Black Box, movie (2020)
image © Amazon Content Services
Uses for the film - Black Box, movie (2020)
Plot
- Set in a alternate / fantasy contemporary setting.
- A man suffers an accident, leading to problems with his memory.
- A man agrees to undergo an experimental therapy.
- A doctor is experimenting on unwilling patients for selfish reasons.
- A father has trouble reconnecting with his child after an accident kills the mother.
Scenes
- The getting into the Black Box hypnosis scenes could be used for depicting any kind of brain interface system.
Designs
Scenario ideas - Role-playing game scenario ideas
Scenario ideas - Wargame scenario ideas
Duel: The playing area has some exit points on the edges (or they can be terrain features on the playing area itself). The models that get pushed out of these exit points become casualties. These can be deep canyons, bottomless pits, or teleport gates gone haywire. The winner is the player that has the last model standing.
Rescue: The attackers try to rescue their captured leader. The defender sets up the playing area, with their base in the middle, and a cell with the captured leader somewhere in the base. The defender deploys their models anywhere on the playing area. The attacker deploy their models on the edges. The attacker has N turns to reach the cell and rescue their leader, otherwise they are late - the leader is executed, brainwashed, reprogrammed. The attacker wins if they rescue the leader, and leave with the leader and more than half of their troops. The defender wins if they kill more than half of the attackers. It's a draw if the attackers can't rescue their leader in time, but they can retreat with more than half of their troops.
Devices inside the base - easier for the attacker: There are devices in the base that are required for the experiment / execution. The defender place some of these devices. Every device they destroy will add an additional turn before they can rescue the leader. If they destroy all of the devices, the defenders can't continue with their plan.
Devices on the outside - more easier for the attacker: The devices are outside of the base. There can be some devices inside, and some others on the outside.
Miniatures - 1/50-1/60 (28-32mm scale)
Civilians: Human-sized (S3) modern (advanced) human female / male civilian.
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Similar stories - Black Box, movie (2020)
Movies
Total Recall (1990): In a futuristic setting, a man finds it out that his body actually belongs to another personality. Total Recall is an interesting action movie, probably better than Black Box in every aspect.
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Frequently asked questions - Black Box, movie (2020)
Is the Black Box film based on a book or comics?
No, Black Box is not based on either books or comics.
Is the Black Box film a remake or reboot?
No, the Black Box film is neither a remake nor a reboot.
Is there a post credit scene in Black Box? Does Black Box have end credit scenes?
No, there's no post credit scene in Black Box.
Is Black Box 2020 scary?
No. Black Box (2020) is not scary in my opinion, unless you are easily scared. There are some attempts at jump-scares, though.
What is the monster in Black Box?
The monster in Black Box is actually the personality of Nolan, the original owner of the body that Thomas has taken over.
Where can I see Black Box? Where can I watch Black Box online? Is Black Box available on Netflix? Is Black Box on Amazon?
As of 2022.02.06, Black Box is available on Amazon Prime Video.
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Resources - Black Box, movie (2020)
Information
IMDB: Black Box (2020): Database article.
WikiPedia: Black Box (2020 film): Database article.
Letterboxd: Black Box 2020: Database article.
Rotten Tomatoes: Black Box 2020: Database article.
TVTropes: Film / Black Box: Database article.
Creation
: Concept art article.¤
Reviews with no spoilers - Black Box film (2020)
: Review video about the Black Box film with no spoilers.¤
Reviews with spoilers - Black Box film (2020)
: Review article of the Black Box movie, with spoilers. Includes a very detailed plot summary.¤
Analysis - Black Box movie (2020)
: Analysis video, explaining the finale of Black Box.¤
https://www.fangoria.com/original/monster-anatomy-black-box/
https://theuumlaut.wordpress.com/2020/11/30/movie-review-black-box-2020/
http://basementrejects.com/review/black-box-2020/
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Buying the product - Black Box, movie (2020)
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Have you seen the Black Box film? How do you like the movie? Would you recommend it to others? Do you know reviews or resources you'd like to add? What further thoughts do you have about it? Tell your opinion in the comments!
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