Written by Mr. Mouseburger 19th Jul 2005
Preston is a Grammaton cleric, this totalitarian society's enforcers against sense offenders (people who display emotions, or have any possessions which might arouse feelings).
Having broken this rule himself, Preston has fought his way through an army of incompetents by using the gun kata; a strange technique which uses advanced statistics to determine the best positions to move in, in order to minimise your chances of getting shot. At least that is the reason given in the film. Obviously the only reason for it was because it looks totally sweet!
I digress.
Preston has fought his way into Father's office (where he has killed some more people with a samurai sword) and now only one person stands between him and Father. Brandt.
Brandt is another highly adept cleric, who has suspected all through the film that Preston is a sense offender. Picking up a sword on Father's desk, Brandt tells Preston to "mind the suit, I plan on wearing it for a long time", and sets himself in a classic sword fighting pose.
Brandt looks like he is quite adept with the samurai sword
Seconds later, the battle is over. Brandt looks stunned, and the audience sees a drop of blood fall from the tip of Preston's sword.
Preston uses the "death by a thousand cuts" technique - but doesn't need the other nine hundred and ninety seven
The camera pans in for a close up of Brandt, who turns his head so the audience can watch his face slide off his head.
Brandt really didn't want to lose face in this battle of the Grammaton clerics
it's kata not carta. it's a japanese word that describes a pattern of attack and defense in martial arts. it literally means form.
This death should be further up on the list! How often do you get to see someone's face cut off?
hexo - thank you for letting me know, i assumed it was carta as in the magna carta. Kata makes much more sense
I watched this film on DVD this evening.
Brandt lasts for all of three seconds, hilarious given his smugness.
I'd forgotten just how splendidly ridiculous the Gun Kata was, I was grinning insanely through much of the film.
The film does actually avoid being total cheese though. There are some nice atmospheric moments and it avoids several several predictable cliches. For example, I fully expected the evil looking kid to betray his dad at the last minute, and also expected the token woman to be rescued moments before being incinerated.
The back of my DVD says something like "The Matrix meets 1984" - but surely it stole far more from Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451"?
All in all, an excellent writeup Mouse
OB
What of "Hacked" "Slashed" or "Dismemberment"?
Gotta love the unexpected simplicity of this death. In any other Hollywood hands, it would have been another lengthy climactic swordfight, foreshadowed by the sparring match earlier in the film and the fact that Father's office is a large, arena-shaped room with two swords coincidentally on his desk.
Instead, the movie gets you by surprise and fight ends almost after it started. Gotta love it when a movie turns an impending cliche into a joke.