The Philosophy of Cloud Atlas

by Kevin Bartushak, Bailey Schultz, Andrea Velosa

The story of Cloud Atlas follows six main characters during six time periods, all taking place at various places on Earth. Each story has a different genre, ranging from historical fiction to comedy to dystopian future. As each story progresses, connections between the actions of the characters become clear, each one making a significant impact on the following stories. Here is a quick breakdown of the six interconnected plots:

1849, Pacific Islands: The setting of the first plot is in the South Pacific, where attorney Adam Ewing arranges a business meeting with plantation owner Gilles Horrox. After they set sail, Ewing finds a stowaway slave, Autua, and begins to help keep him hidden. Meanwhile, Dr. Henry Goose slowly poisons Ewing with the intent of killing him for his gold, under the pretense of treating him for a parasite. Just before Ewing is about to die, Autua saves him from the doctor. After returning to San Francisco, Ewing and his wife Tilda join the abolitionist movement.

1936, Cambridge: Robert Frobisher is a bisexual/homosexual (we aren’t really sure) English composer who takes an apprenticeship under the famous composer Vyvyan Ayrs. He is inspired by the journal kept by Adam Ewing, and sends a series of letters to his lover, Rufus Sixsmith. Frobisher eventually composes his original piece, the Cloud Atlas Sextet, which Vyvyan attempts to steal and claim as his own, leading Frobisher to shoot and injure the old man. After finishing his composition, Frobisher commits suicide.

1973, San Francisco: Luisa Rey is a journalist who has been tipped off by a now older Rufus Sixsmith about foul play in the new nearby nuclear reactor, built by Lloyd Hooks. Hooks plans to have the reactor fail, causing a disaster and a subsequent boost in the oil business. Sixsmith and Isaac Sachs, another employee who helps Rey, are killed by Hooks’s assassin. A friend of Rey’s father eventually helps her gather the evidence and kill the hitman. Rey also finds and reads Frobisher’s letters to Sixsmith.

2012, Great Britain: Publisher Timothy Cavendish becomes involved with the wrong crowd after one of his writers commits a murder. Pressed for a share of the profits by the author’s brother, Cavendish turns to his own brother for money, who then locks him up in a nursing home as a “practical joke.” While there, he reads a mystery novel written by Luisa Rey about her ordeal with Hooks. He plans an escape with the other residents of the nursing home, and eventually writes a movie about his adventures.

2144, Neo Seoul: Jumping ahead a century, the next story takes place in a dystopian future, following the clone workers at a popular restaurant. One of the clones, Sonmi-451, is inspired by Cavendish’s film and escapes the restaurant with the help of rebel soldier Hae Joo. She discovers that after a clone completes its contract, it is recycled into food for the other clones. Determined to stop this wrongdoing, she becomes the voice of the rebel forces and is martyred.

2346, Hawaii: Far into the future, a group of tribesmen live as some of the last among the human race after some apocalyptic event. This tribe worships Sonmi (Sonmi-451) as a goddess, and the main character Zachry is tormented by “Old Georgie,” a devilish figure of his imagination. A Prescient, a race more advanced than the Valleymen, named Meronym visits the village. She and Zachry travel to a rundown communication station to activate a beacon, with the hope that someone will rescue them from the planet. While they are gone, a war tribe kills everyone in their village except for Zachry’s daughter. They eventually escape Earth on a spaceship and end up on a distant planet, where Zachry and Meronym start a family (Filgate 1-4).

Cloud Atlas, both as an entirety and in its separate parts, addresses some of the perennial philosophical issues that have simultaneously plagued and fascinated philosophers since man first became capable of questioning existence. The film primarily focuses on the metaphysical aspect of humanity and the interconnectivity of all things, and through this depiction of reality it tackles the question concepts of epistemology, theology, and morality.

Metaphysics, which itself is the title of a book by Aristotle literally meaning “after physics,” is the branch of philosophy that attempts to gain an understanding of reality as a whole—basically a total explanation for all things (Martin 1). Pre-Modern thought on this broad concept was somewhat divided, especially at first. Philosophers sought to reconcile the ideas of “Being” and “Becoming” in their efforts to pose their own versions of what reality is. Some, like Parmenides, argued that permanence was central to all things, with change being merely an illusion. Others, like Heraclitus, suggested the opposite, that all of reality is in a state of change. Gradually though, philosophers took more moderate stances, and Plato’s theory of Forms became perhaps the most important concept in Pre-Modern metaphysical understanding. The “big picture” arising from Plato’s proposal is one in which, fundamentally, reality is composed of immutable, abstract (but still substantial) Forms that are sources for all observable things. Another part of Platonic metaphysics was his view that humans are souls inhabiting bodies of changing matter—the concept of the eternal soul is significant in Cloud Atlas. In Modern thought, reality was initially composed of both objects of the mind—abstractions such as God—and objects of matter. Throughout the Modern period, however, matter and science took on a more prominent role until reality was viewed as explainable and existent only in a material way. From this, Post-Modernism presents a more relative view of reality, rejecting the idea that claims about “reality” can be verified by any source. Thus they have no single concept of reality, so “reality” is merely defined by those who choose to discuss it in such a way (Martin 2-4). This view of metaphysics is quite distant from that of the Pre-Modernists.

Another concept of philosophy addressed by the film is epistemology, which is basically the study of what we as humans can know and how exactly we can know it (Martin 1). Epistemological thinking has changed greatly over time, with the Pre-Modernists posing the idea that the intellect, above all else, is the only place in which things can be known with certainty. In other words, truth in and of itself can be found but only through our own mind because it can hypothesize the realm of the Forms. Pre-Modernists believed that our senses do not permit us to truly know—rather, they felt a certain level of baseless trust is required. On the other hand, Modernist thought rejected this and favored a way of knowing through the empirical scientific method. Implicit in this was a trust in the senses accompanying the shift to a more material worldview. Skepticism and doubt were utilized to determine truth based on experimentation and logical conclusions. With Post-Modernism though, the epistemological question of how we can know anything was basically answered by the position that we cannot answer it. In other words, we cannot know anything (at least, beyond the self). Post-Modernists are suspicious of objective claims of truth and thus favor a more relativistic view of the world and reality in general (Martin 2-4). The film presents both extremes when it comes to epistemology, thus providing a good basis for evaluation.

The topic of theology is also quite prevalent in Cloud Atlas, mostly in the story told from the far future in which the Valleymen worship Sonmi as a goddess—the same Sonmi who was a Fabricant in 2144 Neo Seoul. Theology means “the study of God,” and it has been the subject of intense thought throughout time (Martin 1). Many Pre-Modernists believed in some form of a God, though not necessarily the Judeo-Christian depiction of a personal God who intervenes in human affairs. Our experience of reality, according to Pre-Modernist thought, is rooted in God and His revelation; the only reason our mind has the capacity to understand at all is because God created it and everything else. In the Modernist period, the belief in God (as well as religion itself) was subjected to rationalism and a more scientific basis for approaching reality. Theological thinking was forced to fit itself into this new method of reasoning. If science could not explain something, the hole was filled in with ideas based on a God until it could be explained rationally. This led to religion taking a “back seat” to science as people’s worldviews began to shift away from abstract thinking. For the Post-Modernists, theological ideas are unable to be proven, so religion itself is viewed as merely a belief system people follow in order to get through life, giving meaning where there is not necessarily any (Martin 8). Thus theology and prevailing views about it have changed drastically from Pre-Modern times.

A philosophical concept very connected to theology, at least in the far past, is morality, which is basically the idea of a system of principles that distinguish between right and wrong (good and bad) actions. Morality can be understood as objective or subjective, in other words either based on external standards or relative to the person making the claim. For Pre-Modern philosophers, morality falls into the realm of things that we as humans can know. They felt that through the intellect, the reality of the concept can be known. Over time though, this objective view of morality changed greatly. Modernists were primarily concerned with the importance of matter, and morality is not a material object. However, many philosophers of the Modern period believed that morality was still valuable and thus attempted to find an alternative foundation for it. Post-Modernists though reject any attempt at a truth as a social construct; therefore, any notion of morality is inherently and inevitably subjective (Martin 5). In Cloud Atlas, morality is addressed both in the individual storylines and also in how each of the storylines connect, with the morality of some characters’ actions affecting their soul in the “next” setting.

One of the most prevalent aspects of Eastern philosophy that is prominent in Cloud Atlas is the concept of rebirth and karma. Karma is defined in most Eastern worldviews as the influence of a person’s actions on his or her future, including future lives. According to an interview with Tom Hanks on his role in the film, the actors playing the characters represents the soul of the individual and its continuity through death and rebirth (Mueller 1). Particular attributes of the characters carry over into the next as a direct result of that character’s actions. For example, there is a clear path that can be observed in the characters played by Tom Hanks. Initially, he plays a murderous doctor who attempts to kill out of greed. This greed carries over to his next character, the innkeeper who extorts money from Frobisher in order to keep his location a secret. In 1973, Hanks’s character Isaac Sachs takes a turn for the better, helping Luisa Rey gain evidence against Hooks, and dying because of it. However, the greed is still present, as his next character Dermot Hoggins commits a murder for publicity. Ultimately, Hanks’s final character, Zachry, is challenged with overcoming his selfishness to save his family. This final challenge and Zachry’s actions represent the journey of “Tom Hanks’s” soul from selfishness to selflessness and courage (Vineyard 1). Each of the characters’ souls takes a different journey through each of the time periods, eventually bringing about that soul’s fate.

Two other characters that have a similar path are Halle Berry and Doona Bae. Each starting out as housewives without any power, they work their way up the ranks through good karma to eventually become important, powerful figures. Halle Berry’s characters solve a mystery in 1973, help Sonmi-451 escape in 2144, and eventually become humanity’s last hope in 2346. Similarly, Doona Bae climbs the ranks through her support of the abolition movement in 1849, killing an evil assassin in 1973, and standing up against the ruling class of Unanimity in the dystopian future (2144). Because of her actions, Doona Bae’s character Sonmi-451 is perceived as a goddess by the Valleymen of 2346 (Vineyard 3). The moral actions of these two characters throughout their multiple lifetimes leads them to become higher beings.

Not all characters rise to glory because of their actions, however. Several of the characters descend into wickedness because of their actions, including those played by Hugh Grant and Hugo Weaving. Hugh Grant turns from a plantation owner to a greedy businessman to a dystopian authority, finally ending up as a murderous war tribe leader in 2346. Each of his actions propels the next character further into evildoing. Hugo Weaving’s characters undergo a similar transformation, starting as a slave trader, working as a hitman, and eventually becoming the devil incarnate in Zachry’s mind (Vineyard 4). These two characters represent the negative effects of karma on a soul that commits immoral actions, leading to evil and wickedness.

Through karmic law and the immortal soul, the movie presents a metaphysical “big picture” of reality, with different times and spaces being inherently connected to each other. The movie itself is an interwoven compilation of several plots in several settings, and the storylines represent a wide range of genres. Each of these stories, in turn, are connected to each other in variety of ways. Robert Frobisher reads the journal of Ewing, and Luisa Rey reads the love letters sent by Frobisher to Sixsmith, who himself is actually present in that plot. Cavendish reads a book written by Rey about her experience with Hooks and then makes a movie about his own experience in the nursing home, which Sonmi-451 views partially in 2144. Finally, Zachry and his tribe worship Sonmi as a goddess in the post-apocalyptic future (Cloud, Digital 1). Even music, in the form of Frobisher’s Cloud Atlas Sextet, forms a concrete connection between the variety of storylines. In Sonmi-451’s interrogation, she states, “Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” (Cloud, Tykwer). This demonstrates how our own human lives are integrally connected to those of others in ways we cannot imagine. These relationships between time and space rely on the ability of humans to maintain links between themselves, links built upon similarities between our experiences. As Rey points out, humanity is repetitive in nature. There are universal themes and archetypal messages that indicate a reality unbounded by temporal and spatial constructions (Mandelker 1). The film itself seems to suggest that though this is true, the intimate details of reality are so complex that it may never be able to grasped fully, but perhaps that does not matter.

The issue of theology comes into question especially in 2346, when Sonmi has become a goddess in the eyes of the Valleyman culture, which is otherwise isolated from the rest of humankind. Zachry faces an internal struggle, however, when Meronym reveals Sonmi’s past. He does not know whether to accept her version of reality as truth. This begs the question, however, of whether or not knowing the “truth” (a change in one’s own reality) really matters in the end. Knowing Sonmi’s history may not affect Zachry’s behavior at all, or it may lead him to think that if there is no goddess, then it is acceptable to fall into a moral relativism.

Cloud Atlas explores the question of what is and is not real by presenting the question in several ways. The most obvious is Ol’ Georgie in the 2346 plotline, because the audience can clearly see him as a figment of Zachry’s imagination, but Zachry’s ontological struggle is not straightforward. He has grown up with the idea of devils, and Ol’ Georgie has been haunting his consciousness for a long time. This subplot very effectively brings us to think about whether or not we can trust our own minds. How do we know that the way we see the world is not the way reality is at all? In a setting similar to Socrates’ allegory of the cave, Sonmi-451 is trapped in the restaurant for most of her life, presenting her with a false view of what reality is, created by the people in charge. After she escapes, she does what Socrates’ says is necessary: attempting to show the truth of reality to those who are restrained by society’s false projections.

When Meronym tells Zachary about Sonmi’s actual life as a clone and a rebel, he is forced to question his own reality, thus bringing the theme of epistemology into play. The audience is presented with the contrast of the extremely limited picture of reality that the Valleymen have as opposed to the relatively bigger range of knowledge of the Prescients. However, these realities are also within the context of all the different stories that are spread out in different time periods of human history, making even the Prescient knowledge seem painfully limited. The idea that all these stories are interconnected but that the people have only the slightest inkling of the overarching storyline implies the idea that many philosophers have reached: it is impossible to know everything, and it is impossible to know much much (or little) of the everything we do know.

The question of what we can and cannot know is also addressed when the Archivist is interviewing Sonmi-451. He asks her for her perspective, her version of the truth. This suggests that he follows the Post-Modern view of truth: that everyone has their own reality and that objective truth is unknowable. The Archivist’s tone and phrasing indicates that he acknowledges that knowing the total truth is impossible, but one should do their best to get as close to the truth as one can. He attempts to do so by compiling different perspectives, each of which have their own subjective truth, to reach an objective truth. This imperfect attempt to recreate the truth brings up the question of who one can trust as an authority. Sonmi replies to this statement, saying, “Truth is singular. Its ‘versions’ are mistruths.” (Cloud, Tykwer). Following the Pre-Modernist view of Truth, which is one that is ultimately objective but not truly knowable, Sonmi’s definition of Truth contrasts that of the Archivist’s, presenting the wide range of beliefs that have been held throughout the history of philosophy.

Ultimately, the characters of Cloud Atlas grow to discover for themselves some level of the Truth in that they make choices they cannot, not make. This represents an adherence to the True natures of their souls and of their temporal and eternal lives. Through knowledge of the Truth, or at least a degree of Truth, the individuals are liberated from constraints such as time, societal influence, and even in some cases gender. As the souls of each of the characters travel across time and space, they interact with the lives of others, revealing more of the True nature of that soul and those they encounter.

Works Cited

Cloud Atlas. Digital image. Io9. N.p., 14 May 2013. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. <http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--SIGMO8b1--/t_ku-xlarge2/18no4leedynl2jpg.jpg>.

Cloud Atlas. Dir. Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. Perf. Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Tom Hanks. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2012. DVD.

Filgate, Michele. “Everything You Need to Know about “Cloud Atlas”.” Salon. Salon Media Group, Inc., 28 Oct. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.

Mandelker, Scott, PhD. “The Metaphysics of Karmic Law.” ScottMandelker.com. N.p., 20 Aug. 2003. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

Martin, Richard. “Foundations Topic 1: The Basics.” Foundations of Catholic Worldview. Cardinal Gibbons High School. Raleigh, NC. 8-14 January 2014. Class Lecture.

Mueller, Matt. “Tom Hanks: The Karma in Cloud Atlas Is Baloney.” Metro. Associated Newspapers Limited, 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

Vineyard, Jennifer. “Your Guide to the Characters and Connections of Cloud Atlas.” Vulture. New York Media LLC, 27 Oct. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.