Megaville

Megaville
VHS cover
Directed by	Peter Lehner
Produced by	Robert Michael Steloff Peter Lehner Cynthia Hill Andres Pfäffli Christina Schmidlin
Written by	Gordon Chavis Peter Lehner
Narrated by	J.C. Quinn
Starring	Billy Zane Kristen Cloke Daniel J. Travanti J.C. Quinn Grace Zabriskie
Music by	Stacy Widelitz
Cinematography	Zoltán David
Editing by	Pietro Scalia
Distributed by	Live Entertainment
Release date(s)	1990
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English (language)
Budget	Unknown

Megaville is an independent/low-budget direct-to-video 1990 American science fiction film, starring Billy Zane in his first lead role. Megaville is a neo-noir psychological thriller which utilizes elements of science fiction such as cyberpunk and existentialism.

Cast

• Billy Zane as Agent Raymond Palinov/Jensen
• J.C. Quinn as Mr. Newman
• Kristen Cloke as Christine
• Grace Zabriskie as Palinov's mother
• Raymond O'Connor as Mr. Taylor
• Daniel J. Travanti as Director Duprell
• Stefan Gierasch as Dr. Vogel
• John Lantz as Secretary of State Mr. Heller
• Bryan Clark as Megaville President Hughes
• Leslie Morris as Presidential Aide, Mr. Vargas
• Vincent Guastaferro as the hotel clerk
• Jim O'Doherty as Megaville TV Reporter

Plot

In the future, national boundaries have been broken down and two giant super-states remain—the bleak, oppressive, and totalitarian "Hemisphere," and the sprawling and futuristic "Megaville." Megaville has an elected president, but the entire system is rife with corruption. All forms of media are encouraged in Megaville, but this freedom has aided moral decay with the distribution of pornography and violent movies. Outside Megaville lies the Hemisphere; whereas Megaville is clean and ordered, the Hemisphere is in a state of decay. Travel from the Hemisphere to Megaville is restricted with few exceptions to the powerful. An outwardly totalitarian regime governs the daily life of civilians in the Hemisphere and the people live in fear of the "CKS" (the secret police). All forms of media are illegal in the Hemisphere.

Raymond Palinov is an unassuming citizen of the Hemisphere. Palinov is loyal to the Hemisphere regime; he is career-minded and has achieved the rank of captain within the media police. Palinov's methods are highly efficient, but on one particular raid, Palinov finds himself drawn to a spaghetti western and cannot pull away from it. One of his men destroys the television set with a sledge hammer and Palinov is ostracized by his superior for the incident. After Palinov nearly loses his job, he begins to exhibit strange character traits. During a rally in which outlawed media recordings are shown to the media police as examples of contraband, Palinov laughs out loud at a comedy clip. Palinov then appears to have a complete mental breakdown and loses consciousness. Whereas most agents would have been terminated following such an incident, Palinov is spared. Palinov is found to be exhibiting unusual brain activity and is sent for an examination. Palinov explains to Dr. Vogel that he has been having bizarre flashbacks and seeing memories in dreams which are not his own. Dr. Vogel tells Palinov he believes the strange behavior is due to years of exposure to media "filth" and initiates a procedure which will remove the unexplained brain activity and restore Palinov's personality in its entirety. The procedure doesn't work and Palinov's mental episodes become steadily worse.

Palinov is contacted by Mr. Duprell, the director of the CKS, with an infiltration assignment. The Hemisphere war against all forms of media is about to intensify with news of the introduction of a new form of media. It is known as "Dream-A-Life" (DAL) and projects hallucinations of the customer's choice into their brain. However, some customers in Megaville have been left with psychosis or started new lives in a fantasy world. The government of Megaville has already deemed DAL legal and its use has become prevalent with the help of a mysterious figure in the Megaville underworld known as Mr. Newman. Duprell explains that Palinov bears a striking physical resemblance to Newman's only known contact in the Hemisphere, Mr. Jensen. Palinov's mission is to assume Jensen's life and infiltrate the criminal underworld of both the Hemisphere and Megaville, discover who Newman is working with, and who Newman's contacts are in the Hemisphere. In order to assist his infiltration, Palinov is implanted with some of Jensen's memories.

Palinov meets Jensen's jilted lover, Christine, a former demolitions expert for the armed forces who went AWOL after being ordered to kill civilians. Christine demands that Jensen take her to Megaville; if he does not she will open up a briefcase full of explosives and kill both of them. Christine and Palinov travel to Megaville and meet Newman, who refuses to reveal any information about his operation. Meanwhile, the president of Megaville, who has decided DAL is not safe, is assassinated. Palinov suspects that Mr. Newman is involved, but the only witness is the president's personal aide, who is now permanently trapped in a DAL induced hallucination. When Palinov attempts to remove the headset, the aide is shot in broad daylight by Newman. Duprell contacts Palinov through a hidden implant in his brain and informs him to close the deal with Newman or his mother will die; Duprell explains he no longer wants to stop DAL but now wants in on the deal. Palinov refuses and Duprell attempts to kill him via the implant. Palinov's mother saves him by destroying Duprell's transmitting device, but is then murdered. However, before she dies she reveals the truth to Palinov; she is not his mother and he is actually Jensen with Palinov's mind implanted. Palinov escapes with Christine into the Mojave desert, where they are pursued by members of Megaville's underworld; all except Palinov are killed in a shoot-out.

Duprell has been watching Palinov through his mind, which Palinov finally realizes. Palinov uses a DAL device so that Duprell will see Palinov's fantasy of exposing Duprell's activities on a Megaville national broadcast, which Duprell sees as reality. Palinov says all the evidence of the conspiracy is in a briefcase at Christine's apartment. Duprell opens it and detonates the bomb inside. Newman reveals to Palinov that he is Jensen's biological father and claims he wishes they had spent more time together before shooting Palinov. Newman then notices his leg is handcuffed to Palinov and he is now trapped in the desert.

Production

Much of the filming for "the Hemisphere" scenes, especially the CKS headquarters, took place over a two day period, on the weekend of the 17–18 February 1990. It took place at the Oakland City Hall which was closed at the time due to damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Festival

Megaville was nominated for the title of "best film" at the international Mystfest special interest festival in Cattolica, Italy, in 1991 (although it lost to a Spanish language film, Amantes).

External links

• Megaville at the Internet Movie Database