Black Mirror S03E05
An under 2000 character Review on Anthologies. Number 12, Black Mirror S03E05 – Men Against Fire – Directed By: Jakob Verbruggen – Written By: Charlie Brooker – Release Date: 10/21/2016. Originally Posted on 6/23/2020.
Black Mirror is a UK retelling, of sorts, of the Twilight Zone. Most of the
episodes have to do with humanity or the dark sides of humanity in relation
to modern society, technological advancements and media/social media
sensationalism aka what I call “POOP Culture.”
The perfect soldier… A soldier that knows its target, feels no anxiety
about the duty of murder during wartime. A solider that does not smell or
see the pains of war. In the future, the military gets computerized
implants that give them real-time data in wartime situations. It allows
them to see, strategize, communicate and execute wartime plans.
In order to get these upgrades, one must allow their partial memory to be
erased. They know beforehand what they see may not be literally real but
once the implant and the mind erase occurs they no longer remember this and
now believe what they see as real. When a war between a village and
mutant-like creatures breaks out the military is brought in to wipe out the
mutants at will. When the mutants start to fight back and use a special
ultraviolet light to zap a soldier it messes up with the implant interface
and now sees the mutant creatures for what they really are, humans.
Refugees… Still ordered to kill them the soldier refuses and is taken
into custody. There he is reminded why they erase the memories of soldiers.
It brings up the age-old question of what is right and wrong in a state of
war and what is the Government allowed to do to a soldier to make them obey
orders and not be totally messed up with PTSD after the fact.
If you knew you were going to massacre un-violent refugees, as a soldier
and under orders, would you? When is too much of a thing in war, too much?
Would you want to know? And if you did know, would you still obey? Your
country just asked you to murder, no, ordered you to do it. The enemy
possesses no threat outside the stealing of food to survive. Do you do it?
The Nazis did…