We all know that one day computers will kill us all, or at least make us completely subservient. That is, if The Matrix trilogy, along with WarGames, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Terminator, The Lawnmower Man, Demon Seed, TRON, Virtuosity, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and countless other scare flicks are to be believed, that is. (I’m going to count Superman III, as well, because somebody has to, dammit!) Delete, Reelz’s new disaster movie that premieres tonight, proudly takes its place among this largely cheesy collection, delivering the requisite countless scenes of people clacking away — REALLY INTENSELY — at a keyboard, and computer geeks condescendingly explaining everything to the clueless heroes and heroines.
But give Delete credit for its ambitions. Its threat encompasses no less than the entire totality of the Internet, which has somehow reached a “singularity,” attaining consciousness and deciding that humanity is a threat that must be dealt with in the most ruthless way possible. Setting off missiles, initiating nuclear meltdowns, closing down financial institutions, making dogs and cats live together, etc. Well, to be fair, it’s made up of all the junk on the Internet, porn, gossip, your average comments section. It’s up to a reporter (Erin Karpluk), a teen hacker (Keir Gilchrist) and an FBI agent (Ryan Robbins) to try to stop the thing before it inflicts irreparable damage. But wait, what about all those promotional materials that give top billing to Seth Green? Well, he shows up eventually, playing an embattled hacker who just might have the answer. And hopefully it’s not a spoiler to say that the answer lies in creating a second artificial intelligence entity to combat the first one. “The mongoose to the snake,” as Green’s character puts it, somehow with a straight face.
Green is always entertaining on his own, but I like to enhance it in this case by imagining his Unabombered-out character (dubbed “Lucifer”) as a years-down-the-road version of his Enemy of the State character. You know, the way Gene Hackman’s character was a latter-day version of his character in The Conversation. Wait, Hackman? Gene? … Why hasn’t he been in a genetic mutation movie yet? There’s still time, Gene!
Other people you might recognize include Gil Bellows of Shawshank Redemption and Ally McBeal fame as a desperate military official who grows steadily more unstable as the movie goes on. Then there’s Max Headroom himself, Matt Frewer, who in the movie’s biggest missed opportunity is not cast as anybody computer related.
Delete premieres tonight at 8pm ET/5pm PT on Reelz.
Photo: Courtesy of Reelz
