Absolon

Absolon is a 2003 Sci Fi/Thriller film set in a Dystopian near future. In the year 2010, a plague wipes out five billion people. A treatment, Absolon, is eventually discovered, and the world government that arises from the ashes of The Plague distributes Absolon to what's left of Humanity.

Fast forward several years. Mankind is still dependent on Absolon, requiring daily injections to avoid catching The Plague. Detective Norman Scot (played by Christopher Lambert) is investigating the murder of Dr. Frederick Reyna, the scientist who created Absolon. In the course of his investigation, he meets World Justice Department Agent Walters (Lou Diamond Phillips), who is strangely interested in the case, as well as Dr. Claire Whittaker (Kelly Brook), the woman in charge of the group that was funding Dr. Reyna's research.

Scot discovers that Dr. Reyna was working on a cure for The Plague, and turns out he may have been killed to cover it up. As he digs deeper into the mystery, his whole world gets turned upside-down, and even Absolon itself may not be what it seems...

A Direct to Video movie, Absolon was done on an estimated budget of $8 million, most of which must have gone to the cast, as there seems to have been precious little left over for anything else. The scenes with Ron Perlman are easily the most entertaining parts of the film.

"Scot: Shut the fuck up."
 * Apocalypse How: Five billion people die in The Plague, making it a Societal Collapse scenario.
 * Badass: Lou Diamond Phillips tries very hard to be this. Murchison pulls it off without even trying, which is unsurprising as he's played by Ron Perlman.
 * Big Breasts, Big Deal: Surprisingly, considering the type of movie it is, Kelly Brook's...um... two most notable features are not displayed all that prominently, aside from wearing tight-fitting clothing.
 * Canon Discontinuity: The Opening Scroll and the rest of the movie seem to disagree on several key points, such as what caused The Plague and how long it's been since the world went to pieces.
 * Cat Fight: Subverted. Claire and Walters' partner get into a brief fight, bludgeoning each other with wrenches. There is nothing remotely sexy about it.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The warrant Walters gives Scot in the beginning of the movie.
 * Conspicuous CG: Pretty much any time the movie resorts to CG.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Scot.
 * Fan Service: Aside from the previously-mentioned tight blouses, Christopher Lambert gets a shower scene early on in the film. And again later on.
 * Good People Have Good Sex: Scot and Claire
 * Government Drug Enforcement: People are paid in Absolon, which is measured in hours, meaning your wages are quite literally how long you have to live.
 * Green Aesop: The Plague was loosed upon the world due to the deforestation of the Amazon.
 * Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Walters and his men are incapable of hitting a target at point-blank range.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: Scot manages to shoot a man in the forehead, firing blind while hiding under a table.
 * Look on My Works Ye Mighty and Despair: The Opening Monologue is on this theme.
 * Mega Corp: One company produces Absolon. Unsurprisingly, they're rather powerful.
 * Never Got to Say Goodbye: Scot often listens to a saved voice mail of his wife saying she's going to visit her mother. It's the last thing she ever said to him.
 * No New Fashions in the Future: Not surprising considering it's only Twenty Minutes Into the Future. However, some characters have hair or clothes that are probably supposed to look futuristic, but wouldn't look out of place at a Dance Club.
 * One World Order: The governments of the world coalesced into this following the upheaval of society in the face of The Plague.
 * Opening Scroll: The Backstory is provided in text form, with the addition of stock footage.
 * Our Graphics Will Suck in the Future: The CGI used in the GPS sequences in the movie don't look much better than what was used in Total Recall, a movie that came out 13 years earlier.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Scot, while hiding from the bad guys, puts on a pair of slightly tinted glasses to hide himself.
 * The Plague: Neurological Degeneration Syndrome, or NDS.
 * Precision F-Strike: Scot near the end of the movie.


 * Race Against the Clock / Title In: Once Scot finds out, a countdown starts appearing on the screen telling how long he has before.
 * Right Man in the Wrong Place: Scot is given the cure because he happens to be a universal donor.
 * Scavenger World: According to the Opening Scroll, the world is living off of pre-plague surplus, with Absolon being about the only thing actually produced.
 * Schizo-Tech: Holograms exist alongside technology that was dated when the film was made. Justified considering the state of the world.
 * Shout-Out: Possibly not on purpose, but Scot's clothes look very much like the wardrobe of Conner MacLeod.
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Dr. Reyna's autopsy lists the year as 2017.
 * Twist Ending: Not quite the end of the movie, but near the end it's revealed that...
 * Wire Dilemma: Averted. Scot seems to magically know which wire to cut to stop the bomb.