Payload

Set in a Dystopian future of 2021 technology has moved forward the point where humanity can now build a space port . A literal stairway to Heaven you ask ? Perhaps and I thought we might be getting a hint of a religious subtext to this at one point but if there is one I didn't notice it . PAYLOAD is a subtle film which drops hints as to what life is like in this future society which seems to be a combination of fascism and corporate capitalism where human individuals seem subject to a rigid caste system where people are literally a commodity . The way this type of story unfolds from the script by Stuart Willis is a good thing because he doesn't feel the need to bludgeon the audience to death with " Oh look at the way these authoritarian bully boys are stamping on everyone from democrats to critical free thinkers " . In many ways the scenario is very credible - except of course in its chronological setting . I couldn't believe a premise like this taking place in 2021 . Maybe if it was set 20 years after this but not in 2021 . I've also got to be very critical and say PAYLOAD also feels like one of those calling card type short movies and Mr Willis has added a twist of cynicism by leaving everything open ended in an attempt to get funding to make a feature length film with the events directly taking place after PAYLOAD ends . . I do notice certain people on this page are asking for more but I felt mainly frustrated by the end and do like shorts that are self contained . What PAYLOAD lacks is a pay off

This film is about the people who the future has left behind. A towering space elevator – a lift to carry passengers and cargo directly to orbit – serves as the backdrop for a place full of crime, corruption, and violence. The juxtaposition of such a glittering accomplishment of human engineering, with a lifestyle where bribery, self sacrifice, and fighting are necessary purely to survive is particularly poignant. And even while this dystopian hell is going on, all the while there's the tantalisingly close means of escape. A way of quite literally climbing to safety.

Payload pulls no punches. It depicts a grim and depressing reality which makes you look again at the world around us and question how likely a dark and seedy future like this really is. Excellent and powerful viewing.

Classical greek tragedy in the sense that Simon finds himself forced to make tough decisions to save his beloved kid brother Dave, but ultimately you wonder whether all his choices, all his bravery and moral struggles, can achieve more than modify the mode of universal destruction.

While Orwell asked in "1984" whether human beings can, alone or with a beloved partner, resist torture and state terror and preserve individual, inner sanity and humanity, Willis asks whether love is even possible, even a meaningful concept in the midst of dystopia, dehumanization, mistrust, and fear, how it may look when it tries to act, and what it can possibly change. Maybe very little?

In spite of all the callousness, brutality, and cynicism of the world painted, the story is told with minimal gore, but with very expressive, almost poetical images - from the prologue, the opening shots exposing Dave's dreams, up to Dave's exodus at the end. Definitely worth viewing, even though it may seem excessively dark to some.

Another dystopia. Another culture where the haves have it all, where people just trying to get by are victimized. Like right here on our Earth in 2019. Of course, we do it differently. In this culture, people are just cattle and their bodies are used for whatever purposes. There is another culture "out there," that benefits from the pain of others. This was hard to watch.

You do have to admire the vision of some short film makers; although the short running time, the lower budget and the host of restrictions and limits it is positive to see creative types tackling big, global stories particularly in the sci-fi genre. That is the case here where in the future a poor family in Australia where the rich now seem to live off the surface and those left below are subject to controls and struggle to get by however they can. Young women are prized as they fetch a good price, with smuggling of goods or humans or anything also helps people get by. When the father of the family is hurt, truths come out that will see his eldest son forced to make some tough decisions to make the best of a terrible possible future.

It is true that the best sci-fi stories are not about how cool you can make your special effects look, but rather how good the story is at the core (which you can then support with effects in service of plot). That is the backbone of Payload because we have a family and we understand the pressure on them and the sacrifices to be made, even if we do not fully understand the world that is causing them to have this situation. The effects are sparsely used but the production standards are still pretty high, with good use of locations and "look" to create a futuristic feel but not to the point that it really strains the short and starts to show.

The problem however is that the limits of the short do limit the story. OK we get a tale that does have a start and an end if you look at precisely what it is doing, but it is still a story with a huge amount going on around it and in a way it is slightly frustrating to have your eyes so focused on the specifics here and not be allowed to look a little to the left and to the right at the same time. That said, as a story it is still engaging and has a good heart at the centre of it. The performances are perhaps not all they could have been and they vary from the "bit too soapy" to the "bit too deliberately stern", a minor complaint perhaps, but they are characters/performances and they don't totally convince even in the context of the Payload world.

It is still worth a look for what it does well though and it is almost an unavoidable downside of such ambitious short films is that the whole story will never get told within them and to be fair it is probably a good thing to leave the viewer wanting more since some of your target viewers will be production companies.