Author's Intent

Andrew Niccol, well known for his other works such as The Truman Show, Gattaca, and Good Kill is no stranger to incorporating innovative technologies in the movies he makes. But along with the heavy use of technology you can also see the underlying unease behind it. He completely avoids social media entirely. In an interview with Ryan Lambie of Den of Geek, he said that the primary reason for it is privacy [1]. This is reflected in Anon with the government’s and later the hacker’s access to the Ether. This closely mirrored the 2018 Facebook (now Meta) data breach that gave leaked 50 million accounts of data. In another interview with Tasha Robinson of The Verge, Niccol mentioned that. “Facebook is now giving people pause because they’ve given themselves up for nothing. It’s all for convenience, and maybe people are thinking twice about that. Perhaps that is an element to this. It’s a cautionary tale.”[2] He further mentioned that due to people’s overuse of technology we have become permanently changed by it, citing that “Because we rely on GPS we’re losing our innate ability to navigate our world”[1]. The bottom line is throughout the film anon you can see how engrossed every individual is in their mind’s eye and how it is reshaping the world around it.

1. jbindeck2015. (2018, May 7). Andrew Niccol interview: Anon, privacy, My Little Pony. Den of Geek. https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/andrew-niccol-interview-anon-privacy-my-little-pony/ Accessed 6 Oct. 2022.

2. Robinson, T. (2018, May 3). Gattaca director Andrew Niccol discusses his new Netflix film Anon. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17312756/gattaca-director-andrew-niccol-interview-netflix-film-anon-clive-owen-amanda-seyfried Accessed 6 Oct. 2022