MovieChat Forums > Cloud Atlas (2012) Discussion > Connections

Connections

posted 10 years ago by andyyang200
5 replies | jump to latest

I don't understand the connections between the first four stories. How did Adam Ewing's journal, Robert Frobisher's letters, and the manuscript about Luisa Rey impact the next story? I have been going crazy trying to figure out everything in this movie, and I would be really thankful if someone helped me.

Edit: I have more questions. How did Luisa Rey hear the cloud atlas sextet before? What is the significance of the cloud atlas sextet? What is the reasoning behind the movie (and the book's) title?
Thanks!

[–] calorioles 9 years ago

Ewing writes his journal about his ordeal. Frobisher finds a copy of the journal and is reading it while at Ayers' house, and remarks about it in his letters to Sixsmith. Luisa Rey comes across copies of Frobisher's letters to Sixsmith (who also plays a role in her story) and also searches out Frobisher's Cloud Atlas Sextet at the record store, and at the end Luisa's neighbor Javier talks about writing a story of her adventures. Cavendish, a book editor, is given a copy of Javier's manuscript about Luisa Rey which he reads during his Aurora House ordeal, and in the end he talks about how his story ought to be turned into a movie. His story is eventually turned into a movie and centuries later is viewed by Sonmi 451 and serves as an inspiration to her to stand up for her rights. Centuries from that, Sonmi's own recollections of her rise and fall to the orison become the basis of a religion practiced by the islanders in Zachry's story.

Regarding Luisa Rey and the Cloud Atlas Sextet, I don't think she actually heard it before but it was one of those deja vu experiences where you've think you've done something or experienced something before regardless of whether or not you actually have. Sometimes I'll have a dream about a place and then I'll go to a place in real life and I'm reminded of a dream. And in fact Ayers talks about first hearing the Sextet in his own dream that resembles Sonmi's story.

It's just one of those things that subtle connects the stories without blatantly rubbing it in your face.

[–] andyyang200 9 years ago

If Frobisher did not read Ewing's journal, would his actions be different? From what I have seen, Ewing's journal, Frobisher's letters, and Luisa Rey's manuscript did not really affect the next story. Or am I wrong?

[–] calorioles 9 years ago

I think it was a subtle, subliminal thing.....as if the previous story was a primer that quietly set the mindset of the protagonist in the subsequent story without explicitly stating so.

You'll see that Luisa Rey seemed very touched by Frobisher's letters so they certainly struck a chord with her. And Ewing's journal was noteworthy enough for him to mention it to Sexsmith, so he had to have been consumed with it. And it's that impact that I think the greater themes of the past story were transported to the next story.

Note that at the end of the Luisa Rey story, her neighbor Javier remarks there ought to be a story written about her ordeal. And in fact that's apparently what happens, and in the Cavendish story, Cavendish is reading the Luisa Rey story all while going through an ordeal himself. And after reading it, he starts to fantasize about turning his own situation into a movie (namedropping Lawrence Oliver and Michael Caine as possible leads). Which is what happens when you come to Sonmi's story.

You don't see Frobisher saying, "Well I'm going to do this because Ewing did it" or Luisa Rey saying, "I'm going to do this because Frobisher did it". But so many times you might be caught up with a particular work of literature or film or music or art and it impacts you beyond your own consciousness. I think that's what was being conveyed here.

[–] lynniepinnie22 8 years ago

Regarding Luisa saying she'd heard the Sextet before. Remember in the 1930s segment, Vivyan Ayres says he had a dream about a restaurant where all the women had the same face. He was clearly commenting on Papa Song, from the Somni segment. He obviously had no way of actually seeing it, but it was just one of those strange links in this movie

[–] rinzzzzler 8 years ago

I was pretty sure I had read that in the book the same soul reincarnated. Luisa knew it because she was robert frobisher.

Found this..Literally all of the main characters, except one, are reincarnations of the same soul in different bodies throughout the novel identified by a birthmark...that's just a symbol really of the universality of human nature. The title itself "Cloud Atlas," the cloud refers to the ever changing manifestations of the Atlas, which is the fixed human nature which is always thus and ever shall be. So the book's theme is predacity, the way individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations, tribes on tribes. So I just take this theme and in a sense reincarnate that theme in another context.