The mystified protagonist of the movie Lucy, while she transcends the limits of human existence, encloses the central argument of whether we have fashioned our conscious being within boundaries deliberately and whether time, space, and life are just an illusion waiting to be discovered.
Directed by Luc Besson and starring Scarlett Johansson, Lucy was initially thought to be a sci-fi thriller. Even though the movie provides all aspects of a blockbuster cinema, including high-speed car chases, shadowy drug lords, gunfights, and ranges from scenes on a plane to the extreme conditions of deserts, poles, and forests.
However, as we go deeper into the plot of the story, we find ourselves far away from the typical action and thriller. We find ourselves in the metaphysical realm that dares to examine the soul itself and its place in the vastness and grand architecture of the universe.
At the primary stage, the movie is not much about science or any logic, but more about spirituality and the history of human evolution.
Lucy, played by Scarlett Johansson, is an American student who gets herself kidnapped by a drug cartel in Taipei and is forced to be a carrier of controlled substances (CPH4). She is operating in dire conditions in Taipei and is made to hide the bags within her abdomen and is aboard a plane by the members of the drug cartel.
However, when the bag of drugs starts to leak within her system, Lucy starts to experience a major shift and starts to unlock her brain capacity to increasing percentages.
With every surge of drug leaking into her system, she grows more aware of the concept of time, reality, and a deeper awareness of her own existence in the face of the vast universe.
As the story continues, the story shifts to a pathway of spiritual enlightenment. The increasing ability of brain capacity evokes the evolution of the ego, and Lucy begins to communicate telepathically. She is now able to control and manipulate matter at will, including electromagnetic waves- radio waves.
Lucy’s transcendence draws strikingly similar ideologies of Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism and Hinduism that speak about nirvana or moksha, where the soul manages to break free from the cycle of birth and death, only to merge with the supreme energy, God Almighty.
Similarly, mystical traditions of Christianity and Sufism also resemble the core concept of the movie, as it speaks about unification with the divine or supreme authority, where an individual can rise into something greater.
Even though this transcendence of Lucy does not involve any prayer or any form of asceticism, but an accident due to the chemical reaction that led to her awakening.
Lucy portrays the crucial elements getting detached from her as she proceeds to her journey. She overcomes the basic human emotions such as fear, love or pain but is now a resemblance of a sage who has returned to offer her knowledge and share it with mankind.
Lucy’s final message: “I am everywhere”, is the presence of omnipresent divinity that echoes the ancient belief of South Asia, we are all made of the same energy, matter, and consciousness. Thus, the movie is not just one of science gone wrong but explores the lies that reside beyond the veil of perception.
For Bangladeshi audiences where poetry, art and philosophy has been shaped by centuries of spiritual traditions, both Islamic Sufism and Hindu mysticism, Lucy explored the concepts which are cosmic and interconnected at an individual level.
The character of Lucy reminds us that the mind is an opportunity to reach the eternal truth, know the vastness of space and understand the reality of time. The movie asks us to realize what might happen if we can transcend our senses and experience the universe in its full, undivided grandeur.
“Life was given to us a billion years ago. What have we done with it?” Lucy asks in the opening scene. By the end, the film offers an answer: we return it, transformed, to the stars.
