Archetypal Scenarios of the Future in the Images of Modern Russian Cinema

Gribakina Tatiana Eduardovna Postgraduate, Department of Philosophy and Culturology, Turgenev State University of Oryol 302026, Russia, Orlovskaya oblast', g. Orel, ul. Komsomol'skaya, 95 gribakinat@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Society, at every stage of its development, interprets its future and a person's place in it in different ways. Emotional attitude to the future depends more on its image than on scientific forecasts or clear development strategies ^{[1, p.236]}. The image of the future is a holistic picture of the future that exists in a certain society at a certain period of its development ^[2]. It reflects one of the sides of the self-consciousness of society, and will allow us to understand how society assesses its viability in a time perspective. The image of the future can be understood as a mental generalization, the median of positive or negative social expectations that are inherent in large social groups. In this regard, social expectations are an element of public consciousness and reflect common ideas characteristic of the majority, directly related to the future. Hopes, dreams, fears and fears create a kind of general background on which the contours of the desired future are outlined. It depends on a positive or negative attitude to the future whether people will strive to prevent the occurrence of an undesirable scenario or, on the contrary, significant efforts will be made and numerous resources will be directed to its implementation.

As a source for the study of images of the future of modern Russia, we have chosen a number of domestic films of the last decade: "Through the Eyes of a Wolf" (directed by N. Voronovsky, 2005), "Inhabited Island" (directed by F. Bondarchuk, 2008), "Target" (directed by A. Zeldovich, 2010), "Star Pile" (directed by N. Kopeikin, A. Kagadeev, 2012), "Personality 74" (directed by I. Reno, 2013), "The Computer" (directed by D. Grachev, 2014), "Mafia: A Survival Game" (directed by S. Andreasyan, 2015), "Dancing to Death" (directed by A. Volgin, 2016), "Defenders" (directed by S. Andreasyan, 2017), "Attraction" (directed by F. Bondarchuk, 2017), "Involution" (directed by P. Khvaleev, 2018), "Alien" (directed by A. Kulikov, 2018), "Draft" (directed by S. Mokritsky, 2018), "Outpost" (directed by E. Baranov, 2019), "Invasion" (directed by F. Bondarchuk, 2019), "Goalkeeper of the Galaxy" (directed by J. Fayziev, 2020), "Moscow does not happen" (directed by D. Fedorov, 2020), "Reversible Reality" (directed by D. Konstantinov, 2021), "A Couple from the Future" (directed by A. Nuzhny, 2021), "Star Mind" (directed by A. Guryev, 2022).

The choice of cinema as a source of research is not accidental, in our opinion, in it, as in no other art form, the author's idea, the collective unconscious, acting as an objective reality and social reality, including all the diversity of processes occurring in society, are harmoniously combined ^[3]. Due to the relatively fast production process, cinema responds quickly to transformations in society and in its plots, as if in a mirror reflects the dynamics of social processes, exposing the fears and hopes of society regarding the future.

One of the problems we faced was the problem of choosing a methodology for the study of visual sources. There is no universal method of studying the visual in modern scientific discourse, because, as A. Usmanova correctly notes, "each cultural phenomenon, due to its uniqueness, requires its own approach" ^[4]. Also, cinematography in the aspect of the translator of images of the future is practically not studied ^[5].

As a theoretical basis for this study, we decided to focus on the model of the American researcher J. A dator who uses not only cinema as a material for analysis, but also a wide variety of sources. The ideas about the future captured in social networks, fantastic literature, scientific forecasts, opinion polls, political programs, economic projects, etc., the scientist subjected to hermeneutical analysis, carried out a formalized classification of their elements, characteristic of content analysis and identified various levels of meaning in them, and in conclusion, on each of them carried out a generalization and content typing. As a result, Dator reduced all the diversity of ideas about the future to four archetypal scenarios: "Continued Growth", "Collapse", "Discipline", "Transformation" ^[6].

"Continued growth" is an image of a "bright future", which embodies hopes that tomorrow will be better than today. Social and environmental problems will be solved or successfully solved in society, technical innovations will have a predominantly positive impact on people's lives, so the living generations can look to the future with confidence. The "Collapse" scenario marks an eschatological perspective in which the decline and death of humanity can occur both from man-made and natural disasters, and as a consequence of the world war. "Collapse" reflects the fear of the future, orienting us to the finalist perspective. "Order" is a variant of the future, as close as possible to the present, the existing trends continue to develop in it and the status quo remains between the extremes of the "bright future" and the "end of the world". This archetype reflects an indifferent attitude to the future, the confidence that it will not bring anything fundamentally new. The "Transformation" scenario assumes the appearance of an unpredictable factor that sets the direction of future development, the configuration of which is fundamentally different from the present. This is the archetype of an unexpected future, which can be both much better than the present and much worse, but it has little to do with our present day.

In our review, we will try to correlate Russian films of the last decades with the archetypes of the future of J. Datora. However, in analyzing the images of the future presented by films, we will adhere to our own research methodology, which allows us to consider not only the content (plot) of films, but also their visual range, we will focus on the color, light and auditory characteristics of the film, negative and positive attitude to certain trends of the expected future. The methodology includes comparative – historical, structural (J. Baudrillard) ^[7], functional (J. Deleuze) ^[8], structuralist (N. Bryson ^{[9, pp.156-170]}, G. Polok ^{[10, pp. 220-238]}), constructivist (P. Bourdieu ^{[11, pp. 20-30]}), structural-semiotic (K. Metz ^{[12, pp. 205-230]}, T. J. Clark ^[13]) methods, analysis of the existence of non-fiction texts (A.V. Drozdova ^[14]) and the method of heuristic analogy (Zh. Derrida) ^[15].

The study of the film will take place on three levels. At the first stage, the plot of the movie is considered, the way the future is described is analyzed, what events take place in it, how the future is interconnected with the present, what feelings it causes and whether there is an opportunity to influence it. The second level involves the analysis and detailed consideration of the visual series, which also allows you to form an idea of a possible scenario for the development of events in the future and the attitude of a person to it. At the third level, the data obtained as a result of the consideration of the plot and the visual series are combined together. Taking into account the color, light and musical design, a conclusion is made regarding the scenario of the development of society and the attitude towards it described in the film: does a person want it to happen, should he think about it, or should efforts be made in the present to prevent this scenario.

So, let's go directly to the analysis of films in order to identify the social expectations of society regarding the future and ideas about it.

The first film in which we find ideas about the future is the 2005 film directed by Nikolai Voronovsky "Through the Eyes of a Wolf". The film tells about the near future, in which flights beyond the Solar System become a reality, a Human Planning Institute functions in society, in which young boys and girls are made into future great poets with the help of special chips. The plot begins to unfold with the fact that on the main character, named Stone, the system fails, the special services are trying their best to get rid of the "danger", accidentally killing innocent citizens at the same time.

The analysis of the plot of the film reveals such aspects of the future as the presence of a Central Space Agency carrying out scientific expeditions outside the solar system, the Human Planning Institute, which develops and implements chips to control the behavior and fate of people. Individuals who cannot be modeled are destroyed by special services to prevent potential public danger.

When analyzing the visual series of a movie, we can note the lack of demonstration of new visual images or technical innovations. Despite the fact that the events of the film unfold in the future, everyday reality does not differ from the present, which is familiar to us, where people go to work, sort out relationships, renounce the civilized world, have problems with special services and die from a random bullet on the street. Nature is also closely interwoven into the urban environment, as in the present, buildings have a familiar appearance both inside and outside. Only the design of the main character's apartment stands out from the familiar interior of the apartment of the early 2000s with its futurism, minimalism, white furniture, lamps with a bizarre shape, clear symmetry and excessive illumination. The apartment is decorated in white and gray tones, radically different from the multicolored, warmer palette of the whole film.

The attitude of the characters of the picture to the future is not unambiguous. The main character is afraid to think about the future, about where he will go on vacation or what will happen in ten years, because, in his opinion, it's scary. While the old scientist, performed by V. Tikhonov, on the contrary, retains hope for a better future, telling the agent that when the Stone returns to Earth, completely different people will meet him.

The fate of the Stone directly proves the possibility of influencing the future and an active attitude towards it. His opposition to the system and the constant struggle for survival, not only saved his life, but also opened new horizons beyond the solar system.

Bringing together the results of the analysis of the plot and the visual series, we can conclude that the film broadcasts a negative rather than a positive image of the future. The musical accompaniment only increases the feeling of anxiety and uncertainty. However, despite the main character's fear of the future, his image cannot be attributed to the "Collapse" archetype.  The tender connection of an old scientist and his little granddaughter brings a sense of optimism, a sense of continuity of generations, the transfer of experience. Hope is being created for a better future, in which, having flown on a space expedition, or having gone with his family into the thicket of the forest, a person will be able to become the master of his fate, find peace, find solitude.

In our opinion, the image of the future created by the authors of the film "Through the Eyes of the Wolf" fully corresponds to the archetype of "Order", highlighted by J. Yes, it is. In the depicted future, scientific progress and the natural world are harmoniously combined, a strong relationship between generations is felt. The future is not fraught with surprises, logically continuing the existing development. Having overcome difficulties, having escaped death, the hero gets rid of the company of uninvited guests, and, eventually, turns out to be an active creator of his life.

The image of the future presented in the 2013 short film "Personality #74" directed by Igor Renou can also be attributed to the same model. The film represents a relatively near future in which, in addition to the existing authorities, a special Service for the Correction of personality and Consciousness has been introduced. The activities of this state body are aimed at ridding society of chaos, incessant wars and global catastrophes. Analyzing with the help of special programs that process the data of all citizens of the country, possible options for the future, building chains of events coming from the present, employees of the Correction Service calculate potentially dangerous actions of people. By correcting individuals, the service prevents such actions. The advertisement of the Correction Service gives an example of a guy who loved to shoot soldiers as a child, and then shot school students, after correction he becomes a talented musician, not dangerous to society.

In accordance with the archetype of "Order", the image of the future presented in the film is practically no different from the present. People also study at universities, meet, fall in love, only the existence of a Correction Service indicates the future tense or perhaps the existence of another, parallel world.

The future presented in the film is pessimistic, since the correction destroys the personality, deprives it of its will, inspires ideological and gender views beneficial to society. The freedom of the individual is defended by extremists with slogans: "We will regain the future," which leads to new mass unrest. Although the authors of the film are convinced that it is possible to influence the future, but the consequences of such changes are unpredictable. The heroine of the film manages to restore the memory of her beloved, and together they deceive the correction service. However, the successful escape of the heroes ends with their isolation from the world. The uncertainty of living in an empty apartment, on an air mattress, with walls plastered with newspapers instead of wallpaper and watching on TV, reports about armed protests, rallies and strikes, people ready to defend their future with weapons.

Analyzing the visual range of the movie, we can note that the streets of the city are deserted, although flooded with the sun. Because of this, the modern city is perceived as artificially "sterilized". The Correction Service building is also almost deserted. In a small room there are huge library archives with cards, symbolizing the artificial cataloging of citizens. With the very adjustment of the personality, the main character of the film connects to numerous sensors and on a white background, he seems to start life from scratch.

Visually, we do not find any new elements of the future, it does not differ in any way from the present that is familiar to us. An unstabilized camera with the effect of "live hidden shooting", demonstrates mass unrest and destruction recognizable by news stories.

The pessimistic attitude towards the future shown in the film forms the belief that we do not need such a future. It is strictly regulated, predetermined, hopeless, there is no place for accidents in it. Quiet, sometimes alarming music, enhances the oppressive mood. Watching the film as a whole suggests that it is better not to interfere in the future, since the consequences can be extremely unpredictable.

To the scenario archetype of "Order" we can also include such films as: "Target" (directed by A. Zeldovich, 2010), "Star Pile" (directed by N. Kopeikin, A. Kagadeev, 2012), "Attraction" (directed by F. Bondarchuk, 2017), "Alien" (dir A. Kulikov, 2018), "Draft" (directed by S. Mokritsky, 2018), "Invasion" (directed by F. Bondarchuk, 2019), "There is no Moscow" (directed by D. Fedorov, 2020), "A Couple from the Future" (directed by A. Nuzhny, 2021).

Mutually opposite options for the development of society in the future are clearly presented in the 2008 fantasy film "Inhabited Island", shot by Fyodor Bondarchuk based on the novel of the same name by the Strugatsky brothers.

The main character is Maxim Kammerer, one of the inhabitants of the Earth at the beginning of the 22nd century, who by this time are armed with a great theory of education that allows people to forget about wars, famine and terrorism. Not having fully decided on his future profession, Maxim tries himself in the free search for extraterrestrial civilizations. At the beginning of the film, Maxim's ship crashes and falls on a previously unexplored planet, which turns out to be inhabited. On Saraksha, as it is called, humanity lives in conditions of a rigid militaristic dictatorship of the first half of the twentieth century, society is noticeably heterogeneous. At its head are "Unknown Fathers", who own power, guarded by numerous military, ordinary people drag out a miserable existence and do not imagine that life can be different. The opposition to the government is made up of "geeks" who have devoted themselves to fighting technically organized brainwashing. "Towers" have been erected all over the country, which, according to the official version, are anti-ballistic, but in fact generate radiation that reduces critical thinking and forces citizens to believe everything that the government claims. Unknown Fathers, by the hands of the military, are waging a demonstrative war with "geeks", which helps to distract the bulk of people from social problems. For the same purpose, a war for territory with a neighboring state has been unleashed. The inhabitants of the planet do not have reliable ideas about the world, they blindly believe that only mutants live outside their territories, anarchy and chaos reign.

The visual range of the painting emphasizes the opposition of the worlds of Earth and Saraksha. At the beginning of the film, the main character is dressed in a snow-white T-shirt, symbolizing purity, purity of thoughts. During a space flight, we see the interior of the spacecraft, decorated in bright colors, in which, along with huge touch screens, photos of Maxim's relatives and the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, are hung. After the shipwreck, the viewer, along with the hero, gets to a gloomy, dirty, devoid of bright colors planet. The city that the main character sees partially consists of ruins, with dilapidated buildings and sheets of rusty iron surrounded by gray, heavy smog. Gloomy residents in rags wander through the streets, dirty hands cook incomprehensible food, dirty kids frolic, and girls of easy virtue lure another client into their networks. Contrasts with this is the deliberate luxury of the representatives of the ruling elite, their blue robes embroidered with gold threads, cabinets with marble walls, carved gold mirrors, silver dishes.

The future represents alternative options for the development of humanity, something that does not exist yet, but it will be possible. The first option corresponds to the Dator's "Growth" model. In the future of the Earth, humanity is thriving, improving morally, mentally and physically, has the opportunity to make a scientific search, he will be able to improve the scientific and technical base and make space flights a commonplace. Maxim Kammerer is a typical representative of this humanity of the future. He demonstrates not only personal high moral and physical qualities, but also strives to change the world around him for the better. It is through his efforts that the desire to comprehend the secrets of the universe awakens in the local girl Rada, he helps "geeks" and mutants, pulls Guy out of mental dependence.

In the film "Attraction" (dir. F.Bondarchuk, 2017) we also find an example of the "Growth" model in the demonstration of a biologically identical human, but more technologically advanced planet from which the main character, Hakan, flew to Earth.

The second option of the future we see on the planet Saraksh. This is a vivid example of the archetype of "Collapse", it demonstrates an example of the degradation of humanity, where in the pursuit of power and in an effort to preserve it, the ruling elite oppresses the poor and weak, zombies them for their own purposes, misinforms and morally destroys. In the past, there was a large-scale war, the consequences of which, in the form of infected territories and mutations, persist until the time of Maxim's arrival. Violence begets violence, as the "geeks" used to say: "We kill because they kill us."

Contrary to the visual series, replete with a dirty palette of colors, disharmony of space, lack of warmth and comfort, gray walls, unmanned military equipment, the future is presented in the film in an optimistic way. This is facilitated by the demonstration of contradictions in the ruling elite, the presence of "geeks" in society who oppose Unknown Fathers and conduct subversive activities. The efforts of the main character, who accidentally got to an alien planet, his dedication, desire to change the situation also inspire hope and make us believe that he will be able to find resources and opportunities to change the unjust, totalitarian and cruel world that has reigned. Watching the film leaves no doubt that the future can and often really needs to be changed in order to achieve the common good, freedom and equality, scientific and technological progress.

Another film with which we can correlate the "Collapse" model is the 2014 film directed by Dmitry Grachev "The Computer". The plot describes a distant future in which humanity was forced to leave the Earth and settle a limited territory on the planet HT-59 with a harsh climate.

Analyzing the plot, we find that there is a League of free planets in the universe. However, specifically on the HT-59, a rigid system of government prevails, based on total control, constant surveillance and strict compliance with regulations. The image of the future captured in the film has nothing to do with the present, except human feelings. People do not have the right to choose a job for themselves, they must face their fate with a partner selected by the system, wear uniform clothes for men and women. The future is pessimistic, because those who do not want to put up with the system are sent to die in the Sargas swamp. A person is deprived of freedom, the right to choose and happiness. The main characters Erwin, a former presidential adviser and Kristin's girlfriend, dream of changing the system and their future, but despite their efforts, after a while a new system reigns on the planet, much tougher than the previous one.

The pictures of the future presented in the film demonstrate a high-tech city carved into a rock, gloomy aircraft with predatory shapes, a gray cloudless sky devoid of warm sunlight. Humanity has lost plants and animals, bloodthirsty aboriginal life forms have appeared instead, carrying their victims under the thick black sand in the swamps – this is how the frightening world of the future looks completely disconnected from reality.

Both in the plot and in the video sequence of the movie "The Computer", we meet a negative scenario of the development of society, in which a person is powerless before desert predators and before the future, in which an even more stringent regime is established. A sense of doom is formed, faith in the possibility of its change is lost. These feelings are enhanced by the heavy background sound and off-screen comments of the main characters. Reflecting on the future, a modern person can only hope that such a scenario of human development will be embodied only in books and films.

Similar to the "Collapse" model, future options are found in such films as: "Mafia: A Game of Survival" (directed by S. Andreasyan, 2015), "Dancing to Death" (dir. Andrey Volgin, 2016), "Defenders" (directed by S. Andreasyan, 2017), "Goalkeeper of the Galaxy" (directed by J. Fayziev, 2020), "Reversible Reality" (directed by D. Konstantinov, 2021).

Another scenario archetype of the Dator "Transformation" reveals itself in such a movie as "Involution" directed by Pavel Khvaleev in 2018. The film tells about the near future, in which the Earth launches a harsh and inhuman mechanism that reverses Charles Darwin's theory. Two young men, Hemming and a girl, Liv, get acquainted shortly before the start of this process, but he turns out to be stronger than them.

When analyzing the plot, we find that the depicted events lag behind us. The film begins with the fact that in one of the TV shows, a Russian scientist tells the audience about the process of degradation of humanity as a species that has begun, but he is not taken seriously. The process of involution originates in the present, when people stop thinking, their frontal lobes of the brain shrink, from which animal instincts begin to dominate, and in the future these processes only intensify. The future is pessimistic, because dreams of security and the desire to get into Noah's Ark are being replaced by the realization of the onset of widespread chaos and the impossibility of preventing the process of involution, either at the individual level or at the level of the state as a whole.

Analyzing the visual series, we do not find fundamentally new visual images in it. Most of the objects of the depicted world are familiar, but they are shown from an unusual side, in which they lose their anthropological meaning. Interiors are dehumanized, devoid of brightness and saturation. The world of the future is depressive, sterile, lonely and empty, reality here alternates with dreams, each of which is worse than the previous one. The initial and final frames of the film show the angle of view from which the future is demonstrated – this is a cosmic scale, in which the existence of humanity is an insignificant episode of the life of the universe. The visual layer of the film objectifies the process of degradation of the earth's civilization. The viewer becomes a witness of how nature is freed from people and the Earth will be filled with light and vital energy again.

Of course, the film describes a negative image of the future and seeks to encourage the viewer to rethink life and its meaning, because when the process of involution starts, it will be too late to change something. The musical accompaniment, with grinding, pulsating, ascending and descending sounds, enhances the feeling of the impermanence of the world, danger and its aggressiveness.

Another Russian film "Outpost" of 2019 directed by Egor Baranov can also be attributed to the "Transformation" model. The film depicts the events that occurred after the unexpected loss of communication and the plunge into darkness of most of the planet. The surviving part of the people is trying to understand what happened, comes into contact with the alien and learns about the process of colonization of the planet begun more than 200 million years ago, in which human civilization was used as a virus to clean up the original civilization of the Earth. The confrontation of the human alien civilization begins.

The events of the movie unfold in the near 2030, in which, due to the strongest impulse, almost the entire population of the Earth loses control over their minds and will, animal behavior changes. The impulse divides people's lives into before and after, the connection between the present and the future is lost, the future becomes unpredictable, changeable and carries a pessimistic charge, since human civilization is forced to confront more advanced civilizations wishing to populate the Earth. Despite this, man is able to resist the alien "gods" and defends his right to exist.

When analyzing the visual series, we can state its novelty. We see a completely different Moscow – a futuristic metropolis filled with neon and holograms, with numerous drones, aircraft, and technical innovations. Initially, the future was a technically improved version of the present, but after the impulse, the world of the future becomes gloomy and frightening, chaos reigns in it, shots and explosions rattle, inscriptions are emblazoned on the walls: "We're all going to die." It turns out to be possible to influence the future, since the main characters manage to destroy cocoons on an alien ship with adult alien creatures, but they leave alien children alive and what this may lead to in the future is unknown.

The film broadcasts an alternative scenario of the future in which humanity will face hostile alien civilizations seeking to take over the Earth and make it their new home. Disturbing music, the sound of numerous shots and explosions, religious motives enhance the drama and pessimistic moods.

The "Transformation" model can also include the film "Star Mind" (directed by A. Guryev, 2022), in which a virus that has struck the biosphere threatens the existence of all mankind.

Summing up the research, we can conclude that the archetypal scenarios highlighted by Jim Dator are reflected in modern Russian films to varying degrees of severity.

The most common archetype is the "Order" model, which is found in most films and consists in demonstrating the future as close as possible to the reality relevant to the viewer and in the confidence that nothing fundamentally new will happen in the future. There are no new visual images here, but the trends of modernity continue and strengthen: social differentiation, the fight against injustice, "eternal" themes occupy a significant place, the search for the meaning of life, love and one's place in the world.

Another, more saturated with new visual images, but less common version of the vision of the future, is the "Collapse" scenario. In the films, he reveals himself in demonstrating a future radically different from the present world, in which, due to man-made and natural disasters, world wars, the usual way of life is destroyed, society is degrading, humanity is on the verge of destruction, further development inspires fear, since it is assumed that it will only get worse.

The third most common scenario is "Transformation", the essence of which is the appearance in the plots of films of an unpredictable factor (the process of involution, alien invasion, virus), radically changing the course of development, endangering the existence of all mankind and the planet as a whole. In visual terms, this is manifested in the demonstration of a new order, a return to the origins, the cleansing of the planet from human civilization.

It is worth saying that to the least extent in Russian cinema there is a script by J. Datora "Growth". This image of a bright future is mainly observed in the image of a new, ideal and harmonious world of more intellectually and technically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, in contrast to the degraded civilization of earthlings, which strives for this level, but still has to go a long and difficult path of moral and intellectual development.

We can only hope that humanity will be able to find the most optimal and progressive way of development, so that the image of a bright future will once again become one of the dominant ones, and a highly developed civilization in it will once again be human.