Season 3 Episode 5: Men against Fire (El hombre contra el fuego)
Show: Black Mirror
Air date: October 21, 2016
Director: Jakob Verbruggen
Written by: Charlie Brooker
*Warning: spoilers ahead.**
Being mind blown about this whole episode with the idea that the military people's vision are being controlled living in a lie that they did not realize got me doing some research.
Another blog/website, The Verge, published by Andrew Liptak, contains more insights and opinions. I will be citing a few details and leaving some links with sources you could check out as well.
We can infer that “Men Against Fire” takes place in an unknown time in future because the technology used is a little advanced than what we currently have. Although, it was surprising to see buildings that looked destroyed and small villages instead of more bigger cities. Soldiers were reinforced with an implant called MASS. It displayed information in 3-D and in an instant such that they could look at buildings and view from their drones. The soldiers targeted Roaches — weak people that carried diseases.
"One soldier, Stripe, gets into a firefight where a Roach uses a device that makes his MASS implant glitch. When he returns to the field, the creatures he saw as monsters are simply human: the implant has been changing how he sees them to make him and his fellow soldiers more effective at tracking and killing them. This military is essentially mopping up unwanted people in society, using the implants to turn them into monsters to make it easier for the soldiers to pull the trigger" (Liptak, The Verge)Charlie Brooker, the writer of this episode, left me uneasy. These soldiers gave their consent to have these implants on them. The catch is, of course, that their memories would be erased. They would forget about their past, their senses and emotions, and even what they gave consent to. In addition, they would be controlled as well on things such as what they see. To make it easier to pull the trigger, they saw these unwanted human beings as monsters, even the littlest children were to be killed.
I agree with Liptak that the structure is an awakening narrative. The soldier's roach hunt was successful as they find a full home with hidden "Roaches". One of the soldiers, known as Stripe, kills 2 "Roaches" which not many can do on their first outing. Fortunately for the roaches, the second human Stripe kills uses a device with a green lazier that would eventually break through the signals in the implants. The interference would allow the soldiers to see the Roaches like humans instead of monsters and give them their senses back slowly. He fails to rescue a woman with her child, which are Roaches to others. In order to try, he fights with one of his group mates, Raiman, who truly supports the military. You can see her strong belief in getting rid of all the Roaches and not letting even one pass through her alive. Stripe gets shot by Raiman and the woman hides him to help him. When he wakes up, he is told the horror truth which seems unbelievable to him.
"In the future, soldiers will go into combat augmented with a range of technologies designed to let them carry out their jobs more effectively. Right now, augmented reality glasses and power systems are being tested, with the expectation that their uses will change as they’re adapted to the battlefield. It’s the perfect situation for military science fiction" (Liptak, The Verge).
It scares me to think that one day we will be killing each other without the inflection of pain or regret to do so because we will be blind to see ourselves in them. It has been going on in the past. Social Darwinism is something some people still believe in. They only care about getting to the top of anything. It's all about the survival of the fittest. However, many people have a turning points where they feel for others. Without empathy, it's easier to not free anyone.
After discovering the glitches, the head of the military and MASS gives Stripe two options. One, being in a cell and having his first Roach Hunt replaying in his head. Which of course, seeing himself kill humans instead of roaches due to his implant glitching. His other option is have his memory wiped, get another implant, and start fresh. He got a taste of his first option owing to the fact that the military controlled what they allowed him to see.
"He chooses the latter" (Liptak The Verge).I beg to differ, personally I was left with a hook thinking that he choose the first option. I couldn't tell if he actually chose the latter. Yes, his eyes turned a shade down of its color and duller, which means his vision is being controlled. However, seeing his tears of happiness left me unease. Aren't they not suppose to feel anything. In regards to the implants. Of course, perhaps they felt something when the military played vivid sex dreams in their minds.
But if the soldiers here have their memories and motivations wiped out, are they really complicit in their actions, or are they victims just as much as the people they’re killing? (Liptak,The Verge).
In a world where that process can be programmed into soldiers, what’s left unsaid is the way any undesirable can be targeted with the flip of a switch.
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