THE MIND-GAME FILM: NARRATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

In an age of new media, the medium of cinema is seemingly as popular as ever, maintaining its currency amidst Web-based social media. This thesis defines and focuses upon the sub-genre of the mind-game film as a lens to investigate how the filmic medium has evolved and adapted to the changes and challenges of the 21st century. From the traditional understanding of cinema as an “old” medium predating the advent of the Internet, I posit that cinema itself has become a hybrid medium in the 21st century, as it incorporates or interacts with characteristics of Web-based “new” media, by its very form. Following this, I propose to view cinema as a form of narrative technology, via the sub-genre of the mind-game film, using the films Inception (2010), Enemy (2013), Triangle (2009), and Predestination (2014), to illustrate the various technologies of the mind-game film. Furthermore, the relevance of the mind-game film is reiterated, through charting the shifts across the domains of film, media, and gamification. I argue that above all, the mind-game film, as narrative technology, serves to prepare humans for the unknowability of the future, by teaching us how to plan our next move.