Mad God (2021)
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An assassin navigates a hellish, post-apocalyptic underworld filled with grotesque creatures and decaying technology.
The story
The film opens with the silhouettes of people building and climbing a tall tower toward the heavens, which is then struck down. A figure known as the Assassin, equipped with a map and a briefcase, descends into a ruined, hellish world via a diving bell. As he travels through the underworld, he encounters a variety of grotesque creatures and machines of torture. He eventually reaches a city inhabited by a mindless army of drones. Amidst the decay and carnage of a world shaped by war and filth, the Assassin follows his map through a series of dangerous environments, including a munitions depot and a war zone.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
The film begins with a biblical passage and the destruction of a tower. An Assassin descends into a hellish underworld with a map and a briefcase. He navigates a wasteland of monsters and machines, eventually reaching a city of drones. He is later revealed to be a patient in a hospital, where a surgeon extracts a wailing, infant larva-like creature from his body. The narrative then shifts to a 'world above' where a man called the Last Man receives a map from three witches. He gives it to the Assassin, who is shown in a loop of his journey through a ruined city. In the underworld, the infant is taken by a figure in a Plague Doctor's garb to an alchemist, who grinds it into powder to create gold. This gold is used to create a new cosmos, and as the process completes, the Assassin's bomb finally detonates, and time rapidly progresses forward.
- First release year
- 2021
- Runtime (minutes)
- 83
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Phil Tippett
- Writers
- Phil Tippett · writer
- Cast and characters
- Alex Cox
- Genres
- adult; stop-motion-animated; science fiction; horror; dark fantasy; body horror
- Themes
- war; cycle of destruction; survival
- Tone and mood
- bleak; disturbing; dream-like
- Setting
- A ruined, hellish underworld and a desolate wasteland of war.
- Premise and plot tags
- post-apocalyptic; fantasy; horror; stop-motion
- Reception
- The film received generally favorable reviews, praised for its animation, bleak atmosphere, and unique visual design, with some critics noting its simplistic narrative.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 92% · scale: percentage · review count: 91; Metacritic · score: 80 · scale: 100 · review count: 14
- Production trivia
- The film was produced over a period of 30 years.; The production began while Phil Tippett was working on RoboCop 2.; A two-minute short VR-version of the movie was released in 2016.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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