Love, Death & Robots: Pop Squad

     

    Prior to becoming a short film, Pop Squad was originally a short story published by Paolo Bacigalupi in a collection titled "Pump Six and Other Stories".  While Phillip Gelatt, the script adapter changed the ending for the film, it made the symbols and the story's theme more impactful overall. For starters, the hat is left behind on the kitchen table, signifying that Briggs has shed his role as an enforcer and is choosing to abandon his post as a state-sanctioned murderer. Furthermore, this allows him to feel the rain on his face. While he feels the rain in the short story, he does not die as he exits the house where Eve and Mealanie live like he does in the film. This enhances the meaning of the rain, signaling to the viewer that he is experiencing a change in his final moments as water is often a symbol of cleansing and rebirth. As he is faced with his own mortality, his eyes widen and come to life for the first time since the viewer has met his character; further emphasing that life is not precious without death or birth, both of which are new and crucial for a meaningful existence. The film's premise brings to mind the discourse on bodily autonomy as it highlights the horrific consequences of providing a government legal authority over one’s reproductive system. While the current conversation surrounds the injustice of forcing parenthood upon people, Pop Squad demonstrates an equally upsetting situation wherein the powers that be forcibly revoke life. This shifts the paradigm and provides a compelling warning about the future of laws regulating people’s bodies in a new way. Furthermore, Pop Squad warns the audience about the horrors man creates when he finds a way to cheat death. Instead of one particular creature who has achieved immortality and lost its humanity, it is society at large that has become the murderous Golem. The scarcity of resources requires that no more people be born so that the selfish can maintain their lavish lifestyle for eternity while others realize how meaningless life is without death and birth. The character Eve says “I cherish these moments because I will not have many”, communicating Paolo Bacigalupi’s message about value. Much like the resources the immortals kill for, time and life are only valuable when scarce.