The Fountain (2006) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life.

The Fountain is a profound look at the life and death of two different characters across three periods of time. It is a sci-fi film wrapped in a fantasy film pretending to be a metaphor about humanity.

First Impressions

The trailer for this film seems unique. It has the main actors playing three versions of their characters, or at least three different characters–in the years 1500, 2000, and 2500. Each couple appears to be in love with each other though there are obstacles in their way, most notably the modern-day woman appears to have cancer. It’s unclear if these are the same characters but with a title like The Fountain, it brings to mind the Fountain of Youth, which might coincide with Hugh Jackman’s conquistador-looking character in 1500. I’m very interested to see what this film has to say–as it appears to be a most unconventional science-fiction film.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

In the 16th century, a conquistador named Tomas (Hugh Jackman) enters a dark Mayan temple and fends off 30 warriors. He ascends to the top of the pyramid where he is greeted by the Mayan Lord of Xibalba (Fernando Hernandez) who attacks Tomas with a flaming sword. The film switches time frames to the 26th century where a bald man, Tom (Hugh Jackman), is traveling in a clear biosphere accompanied by a dead looking tree. Tom takes a piece of bark from the tree and eats it before making some ink and tattooing a line on his already heavily tattooed arm.

In modern times (early 21st Century), Tommy (Hugh Jackman)–a doctor–is operating on a patient with an aggressive tumor. He has an idea to mix an experimental compound with the sample of an “old growth tree” from Guatemala, which they inject into the patient, a monkey named Donovan. Tommy loses his wedding ring somewhere in the prep room. Dr. Lillian Guzetti (Ellen Burstyn), Tommy’s boss, tells him he’s getting sloppy and chastises his radical treatments. She suggests he spends more time with his wife Izzi (Rachel Weisz)–who is dying from a tumor.

At their house, Izzi has Tommy look through a telescope at Xibalba, a nebula wrapped around a dying star, which is also the name for the Mayan underworld. She introduces Tommy to a book she’s writing (called “The Fountain”) that starts in Spain with a conquistador and ends in Xibalba. Tom’s space sphere flies into the Xibalba nebula. Tommy’s concoction hasn’t cured Donovan’s tumor but it has made him younger and more fit. Tommy returns home to find that Izzi is losing feeling in her extremities. Unable to sleep, he begins to read her book.

In 16th century Spain, the Inquisitor Silecio (Stephen McHattie) is grabbing up land from under Queen Isabella (Rachel Weisz). Tomas attempts to kill the Inquisitor but is stopped by Captain Ariel (Cliff Curtis) and taken to see Isabella. Tomas would do anything for Isabella, and she introduces him to Father Avilla (Mark Margolis) who knows that the Tree of Life is hidden in a lost Mayan pyramid. It is said those who drink from its sap will live forever. Isabella gives Tomas a ring and a quest: find the Tree of Life.

Tommy finds Izzi in a local museum looking at the Mayan creation myth of the First Father when she collapses. When she awakens in the hospital she tells Tommy that she wasn’t afraid of dying. Izzi knows her time is short. She gifts Tommy a pen and a bottle of ink so he can finish her story once she’s gone. Izzi wants to be buried with a tree seed so her death can be an act of creation. Tom tends to the dying tree, which he believes is his wife. Meanwhile, Avilla discovers the lost pyramid and the opening scene of the film repeats, with the conquistador storming the temple.

Izzi dies, just as Tommy gets word that the growth in Donovan is being shrunk by the treatment. Inconsolable, he attempts to tattoo a ring around his finger with the pen Izzi gave him. Tomas confronts the Mayan priest but is allowed to pass when he sees a vision of Tom in the lotus position and confuses him to be the First Father. Tomas drinks the sap of the Tree of Life and is consumed when flowers burst forth from his body. Tom finds a wedding ring as he enters Xibalba which explodes – driving Tom into his tree which springs back to life before being destroyed. Tommy sees an apparition of Izzi who picks a fruit from the reborn tree and hands it to him. Tommy plants a seed by Izzi’s grave.

“Death turns all to ash, and, thus, death frees every soul.” – Inquisitor Silecio

History in the Making

In the pantheon of science-fiction films The Fountain is a metaphorical treat. It goes in directions unattempted by other films and examines the most basic of human conditions, life & death. This was director Darren Aronofsky’s fourth film after his critically acclaimed Pi and Requiem for A Dream. The Fountain was his first and only sci-fi film to date, but it is also so much more than that term elicits. It is more of an experimental film in its construction and a metaphysical film in its execution. It is also based on fantasy as much as it is based on history or science, yielding a unique film that asks more questions than it answers, leaving the viewer to make up their own mind about the meaning.

Aronofsky was inspired to push the limits of the genre by previous films including The Matrix, Star Wars, and 2001: A Space Odyssey–which appears to have the biggest impact on the film. Unlike those films, The Fountain is told in a non-linear fashion–unfolding its story via three distinct time periods. Each period of the film, while told mostly chronologically, is connected to the other eras through the use of matching imagery, dialogue, or some thematic element. For example, Rachel Weisz’s characters often tells her companion to “finish it,” whether that’s Tommy finishing the story started by Izzi or Tomas’s quest dictated by Isabella. This intertwined narrative, in which the present-day elements give way to a story of the conquistador and a future world which may be Tommy’s immortal journey, creates a metaphorical tale about a man and a woman that explores life, death, and immortality.

Genre-fication

The Fountain has fewer elements of traditional sci-fi films than most films looked at on Sci-Fi Saturdays. It has more in common with 2001: A Space Odyssey and Solaris than it does with more straightforward sci-fi films like The Matrix or I, Robot, looking at the meaning of life in more psychological terms than as an action/adventure film. While 2001 is a metaphor for the future of humanity as a collective, The Fountain chooses to focus on the story of one character, Tommy, and his particular struggles with his dying wife. The futuristic elements of the film, the 26th century Tom in his biosphere spaceship, are less of a tale about how humanity will exist in the future, and more of a metaphorical counterpoint to the modern-day storyline. It’s fair to say that the modern story is the main thrust of the film, with the past fairytale-like storyline and the future nihilistic storyline, serving to flesh out the deeper themes.

Films dealing with immortality usually fall within two categories: fantasy or horror. There are tales like Highlander and Tuck Everlasting that bend more towards the fantasy elements, while horror films like Dracula or The Mummy explore a different type of life extension. That’s not to say that immortality can’t be broached in science-fiction. Cocoon and Zardoz are two films that deal with the idea of living forever, but these are the exception rather than the norm. The Fountain straddles these concepts leaning into both fantasy (specifically the romantic fantasy) and science-fiction. The past sequences with Tomas the Conquistador and his quest for the Tree of Life retain a mythical quality as the man searches for something told only in tales; like Lost Horizon (1937) or Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Nothing about this portion of the story feels like science-fiction, and in fact is more rooted in the myths of Mayan culture. The future storyline is almost pure sci-fi. A man travels through space in a glass sphere which includes soil, water, and a tree. While there’s no explanation of propulsion or mechanics, his quest becomes the antithesis of the conquistador; to find death. This storyline is the least developed, but essential for the circular nature of the plot.

Societal Commentary

Life and the acceptance of death are the main themes in The Fountain. However it’s not about the main character’s death, but rather his wife. Tommy must learn to face the death of others, specifically Izzi. As people get older this becomes a challenge that all will face. Friends, relatives, and loved ones will start to die around you. How do you deal with those losses? If you’re Tommy, then the answer is not so good. As a doctor, his character knows that Izzi only has a limited amount of time left. Rather than spend the time with her making memories walking in the snow, he focuses on his work and the hopes that he can find a cure. Aronofsky reminds audiences that the human connections are the most important, however painful. The first time we are introduced to Tommy, Izzi asks him to join her for a walk, but he refuses saying his work is more important. This scene is revisited at the end of the film after the intertwining stories show the loss of the woman he loves and what is in store for Tom. At that point, Tommy makes a different choice and follows her out into the snow, a choice he should have made the first time.

Films exist in a linear nature–start to finish–but also have a non-linear structure as well. Having seen a film, the viewer knows its ending from the start. This ability to see into the future provides knowledge that many would love to have. Tommy, with the help from Tomas and Tom, is able to seemingly experience these various timelines which help him process the pain and loss of his wife. Tommy understands that he has been selfish in his relationship with Izzi. While she tells him that she is not afraid of the end, and specifically asks him to finish her story (not just “The Fountain” but her story), Tommy thinks only of himself and not wanting to be alone. He struggles to complete his life-prolonging elixir before she passes. And when he finally gets it right, Izzi dies before he can administer it. This may set the character into a 500-year immortality cycle as he seeks a way to return her to him.

If the future portions of the film are to be seen as a continuation of the modern-day scenes, then Tommy followed Izzi’s wishes and had a tree planted over her body–allowing her death to nourish new life (which is the metaphor of the Tree of Life). Never having finished his wife’s story about “The Fountain,” Tom recalls her story of Xibalba, both the Mayan Underworld and the dying star. He sets out for it in his biosphere with the dying tree which contains the last essence of his wife in order for both of them to be destroyed and reborn together. This story via the magic of time, love, or film editing informs the story of Tommy who is then able to make peace with the passing of his wife. The story of The Fountain is about how to handle death in the face of living past the ones we love, which can be the most difficult thing in the world.

The Science in The Fiction

The Mayan mythology of The Fountain may be the first exposure for many to the ideas and myths of this culture. The main ideas of Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, and the First Father, a deity from which all life springs forth, are the main myths spoken of. The Fountain presents these tales in an accurate way while incorporating other elements surrounding them. The film links the Mayan idea of Xibalba with an interstellar object which is also called Xibalba. This nebula which contains a dying star was seen as the entrance to their underworld, and the destination sought after by Tom in which to seek the rebirth with his wife. The point is that the Mayans chose a location of actual death (the dying star) as their metaphor for death. This is only in the film, however, as no real Xibalba appears to exist.

The other myth that is explored via the characters of the film is that of the First Father. Izzi explains that he was the first human who sacrificed himself so that the Tree of Life would burst from his belly, and his children would hang his head in the sky as Xibalba–becoming both creation and destruction. Tomas the conquistador becomes mistaken for the First Father by the Mayan priest with his flaming sword, due to the appearance of a future Tom overlapped in that reality. Tomas then becomes a version of the First Father as he consumes the sap from the Tree of Life causing flowers to burst from his body. His sacrifice, and death, formed the tree which Izzi would pick a fruit and give to Tommy, which he would bury with her body in order to form a new Tree of Life that would travel the stars with Tom to the end of creation. Completely understandable, right?

The Final Frontier

Aronofsky uses cancer and the metaphor of cancer in an interesting way. Tommy is fighting to cure the cancer inside Izzi, which is ravaging her body while Tomas is fighting the cancer of the Inquisitor which is ravaging Isabella’s Spain. Silecio is trying to collect as much property in the nation as he can by torturing people in order to wrest control of the crown from Isabella. To this end, it’s possible that Tom is also fighting a cancer within the tree he carries. Certainly, that object has seen better days, and he is determined to get to his destination before it fully withers away.

For a film called The Fountain, it seems odd that there is no fountain in it. As mentioned above, after viewing the trailer, it seemed like the film might be talking about the Fountain of Youth, which was a mythical spring sought by Ponce de Leon and had the ability to grant eternal life. However, after viewing the film, the fountain of the title is more metaphorical. It could be related to the Fountain of Youth, but using the Tree of Life as a similar concept. But maybe it’s a fountain as a wellspring of creation or a fountain of knowledge. The idea is that the best answers come from within and can flow out and over oneself in the search for knowledge. Either way, The Fountain is a profound story that inspires discourse and contemplation at its conclusion which may be the mark of truly excellent films.

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