Episode 249: World on a Wire with Marta McFly

Forrest Miller, Conan Neutron, Kristina Oakes and Kt Baldassaro are joined by cinephile Marta McFly of Mcfly’s Movie House and way more to talk about her Bracket Pick the remarkable sci-fi epic: World on a Wire. Years before the Matrix, Blade Runner, Videodrome, Avatar and even before Westworld, there was Fassbinder’s one and only Sci-fi movie.
What other film can evoke both Three Days of the Condor and checks notes The Sims?

A two-part TV series based on a 1964 sci-fi novel by Daniel F. Galouye, World on a Wire was initially broadcast on Western German television. After that, it was lost for decades, then restored and released some 40 years later. WoaW is one of the first cinematic examples of a simulation hypothesis, predating movies likeTron, Videodrome, and even eXistenZ. It also mixes in the paranoid drama of political thrillers like Three Days of the Condor,Parallax View, and the Conversation and combines it with some Philip K. Dick style “big ideas” and neo-noir, and just a splash of James Bond. World on a Wire’s entire premise is a riff on Plato’s allegory of the Cave, challenging our perception of what’s real, which even circles back to our lead’s dilemma of wondering if he’s in a virtual world. All of this many, many decades before these popular sci-fi faves.

David Hume argued (around 1770) that causality plays a role in what our notions of reality truly are. This is a concept that has been in the mainstream for years. It was not commonplace at all in popular visual media forms in 1973. However, this film is not about action (unlike The Matrix) but about ideas that revolve around the human mind, the role of science, and the concept of simulation. Fassbinder gives us clues that suggest Fred Stiller’s world may be fake. It’s even on the movie poster. Above the title, we see vertical lines extending like wires in a computer. From there, we see two overlapping circles forming an eye, which signifies the sort of surveillance and voyeurism the film deals with. In the center of the eye is Stiller himself, running. You could even argue that the poster’s lead is caught between two worlds because he’s trapped between circles. The film itself contains many scenes where Stiller should be standing or sitting still, but he isn’t. His conversation with his boss, Siskins, in his office is memorable. While chatting, they spin in their chairs without pause. They are themselves simulations — programs built on wires and circuits — constantly in motion.

Sure, this is the Matrix (1973), but it’s largely from the perspective of the office functionaries RUNNING the Matrix.

Douglas Sirk’s films greatly influenced Fassbinder, as many fans know. Sirk was famous for using mirrors and even once remarked that the Much as the beloved Hollywood filmmaker used mirrors in his movies. “mirror is an imitation of life.” is a quote from him. In this, Fassbinder’s only Sci-fi film, he reflects his characters similarly, taking this Sirkian approach to the next level by playing with screens, furthering the concept of artificial reality. 
As Stiller himself utters at one point, “They are like people dancing on TV for us.”

Everything here is deliberate, including the names of the characters, as three key character names reveal their role in the story.

With the brutalist architecture, new at the time, evoking a strange near future at the time it’s hard not to think of Goddard’s Alphaville. It also includes a brief cameo from Eddie Constantine, who is the lead in Godard’s noir film. But while Alphaville has a future detective, the hero of World on a Wire is far more super spy! Yet Stiller’s character does seem like the quintessential noir “fall guy,” his style also reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart. Often we are asked What is real? What is not? Who sees who? Who pulls the strings? Leaning into the paranoic vibe of shows like The Prisoner, while pre-dating the 70s conspiracy movie trend. Also pre-dating Westworld (looking at YOU, Crichton)

So much modern technology was predicted here as well. Using a virtual world to test product roll-outs? That could be a concept TODAY! Ripped from the headlines.
A cool and prescient film. Exploring ideas later mined by a half dozen sci-fi classics.
A movie of both ideas and questions, as well as style and action. World on a Wire proves that it isn’t special effects that make for good sci-fi, it is big ideas with execution that usually centers how it reflects on the nature of humanity.

Some folks get scared off by the runtime, or the deliberative pace don’t be: this is a wildly imaginative sci-fi thriller that pays off big time.
This was a lively and informative episode and a great starting point to dive into Fassbinder’s World on a Wire.