Ten minutes into director James Bamdord’s Utopia, I started wondering whether the HBO executives and Jonathan Nolan are aware of the existence of this thing. Not only is the movie a blatant rip-off of Westworld if we go by the central idea, they have even failed to come up with an original title. You have to be really unfortunate and terribly unlucky if this is what pops up when you Google search the title, because ideally you should find the fantastic British TV show (with the same name, of course). But since you’re here, I guess you’ve watched this thing and are now looking for an explanation of the ending. So, I’m going to oblige by giving you just that.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Movie?
So the theme park is called “Utopia” here, and it’s the brainchild of one Jeremy Zenner (should Jeremy Renner put an arrow in the director for almost copying his good name?). Unlike Anthony Hopkins’ philosophical Robert Ford, this guy is a sleazy douchebag who simply kidnaps young women and puts them in his theme park. How does he do that? By putting some kind of chip in them, which lets Zenner and his team control them. Or so the movie tries to establish—until landing on the big cloning twist (we’re going to talk about it later).
Anyway, Zenner runs the whole operation in the fictional European country of Astovia in a very hush-hush manner. Only rich and powerful men get to be a part of it, which is a given. Zenner’s only fundamental is sex sells, and all he wants to do is fulfill the male fantasy of doing whatever they want to attractive young women, like playthings. The movie begins with a hitch, though. One of the women, Natalie, chops the head off one of the clients thanks to some sort of a malfunction. The main investor, Karl, is understandably concerned, but Zenner assures him that this is just one of those incidents, and things will eventually be alright. It probably would have for Zenner had he not kidnapped Alexis, wife of army man Damon. Without wasting any time, Damon gets on with the search for his wife, and it doesn’t take long for him to learn about ‘Utopia.’ So now he must infiltrate it and save his wife from the bad guys; that’s the crux of the story, basically. Damon is not alone here; he’s going to get all the digital help from Rupert, an ex-MI6 tech expert. He’s obviously not going to walk in as Damon, so Rupert sets up the perfect fake ID for him—potential investor and client Thomas Wyeth, who has recently lost his wife (how convenient!).
Does Damon find Alexis inside Utopia?
Of course he does. But Alexis doesn’t remember anything because of what Zenner did to her and everyone. We also see Natalie, who seems to be back on the grind again. As the rich client, Damon receives a warm welcome, and he is given the choice of picking whatever environment he likes. This is where Utopia has gone a bit creative. The HBO show only had a Western theme park, but here one can choose from World War II, Medieval Rome, France of yesteryear, and many more (come to think of it, the 1973 movie actually had more than one theme); of course, the Wild West is there. It hardly matters for Damon, as his goal is to somehow free his wife. That’s not going to happen easily under the circumstances. To make matters worse, Karl takes a liking to Alexis, and as the main investor, he has the privilege to have any woman he wants. Damon still manages to form a rapport with Alexis. Natalie and another woman, Joan, take an interest in Damon, and soon we see him trying to make them remember their past lives. Meanwhile, Zenner is smart enough to suspect something is going on under his nose, but Damon manages to throw another client under the bus by slipping a spying device into the man’s clothes.
Does Damon manage to save Alexis?
Damon saving his wife was a given. That’s the whole point of this plot. Alexis might not remember her husband, but I take it it’s not hard for her to bond with him no matter what the situation is. Damon doesn’t tell her anything directly, but he does talk about getting her out of the hellhole. The plan is quite simple—finding a way so that Rupert can deactivate whatever chip Alexis has inside her brain and help her remember. That still leaves facing Zenner’s security team, but for a trained soldier like Damon, that’s pretty much a cakewalk.
I guess that’s why Utopia resorts to the big twist. The Alexis you have been seeing is not the real one; it’s actually a clone. It’s the same for every other woman as well. The original ones are put into some sort of coma, while the clones are fulfilling Zenner’s dream. Damon is obviously shocked to find out about this, so are Natalie, Joan, and Alexis. However, realizing his real wife is in a coma, Damon promptly attempts to wake her up. But the clone Alexis turns out to be quite the nuisance. She doesn’t want the real Alexis to wake up, as she intends to live. She doesn’t even hesitate to pull a gun on Damon. This brings Zenner to the scene and makes things doubly difficult for Damon. However, the soldier still manages to fight everyone off and rescue the real Alexis and wake her up. Along with Alexis, everyone else also wakes up, but that doesn’t seem to affect the clones. But this leads to Zenner coming to the conclusion that he doesn’t need the original women, and upon his order, his people start killing them. Damon takes control of the situation, and with the help of Natalie and Joan, finds the route to exit. Clone Alexis appears and points a gun at him again, but this time, the real Alexis shoots the clone. While Damon could have just left with his wife, Natalie, and Joan, he asked them to go and wait outside as he really needs to have his hero moment—where he fights Zenner’s head of security, who has sort of become a personal rival. He also takes care of Karl with a spear.
Utopia ends with Damon, Alexis, Natalie, Joan, and the other girls going away while Zenner is planning to regroup and start his thing once again. He has found a new investor as well. I understand the director is deliberately doing this as this sets up a sequel, but as an ending, it’s quite awful to say the least.
