Eddington also explores conspiracy theories and the podcasters and YouTubers who spread them online in exchange for influence and profit. Phoenix\u2019s character will often return home to hear some disembodied voice spouting baseless claims through the speakers of an abandoned laptop. Later, his wife (Emma Stone) or mother-in-law (Deirdre O’Connell) will regurgitate those fringe theories over breakfast.<\/p>\n
Again, Aster built this dark corner of his world out of real-life source material.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing was inspired by somebody I heard on the street in New York with a microphone,\u201d he says. \u201cI wrote that down for later. Others were pulled from different corners of the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aster\u2019s overall goal with Eddington was to convey the overwhelming feeling of being online today, while still making a compelling movie.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important to get as many voices in the cacophony and represent as many corners of the internet as possible\u2014to make a coherent story about the incoherent miasma we are living in,\u201d he says. \u201cI wish we could have shown more, but we did as much as we could without it becoming distracting or no longer supporting the story.\u201d<\/p>\n
AI Is Creating An \u201cEra of Total Distrust\u201d<\/p>\n
Eddington may primarily be a movie about how social media is breaking our brains, but there\u2019s another technological innovation Aster was careful to represent in his movie: artificial intelligence. The film begins with a plan to build an AI-training data center on the edge of town, a plot point that resurfaces several times throughout the story (including in the election plotline, with Phoenix\u2019s character campaigning against the shady business interests behind the new facility).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is mostly peripheral,\u201d Aster says, \u201cbut for me, it\u2019s the heart of the film. This is a movie about people living through Covid, navigating a crisis. Meanwhile, just outside of town, another crisis is being cooked up.\u201d<\/p>\n