In January 2019, it was revealed that Lisa Joy would be directing the picture, which will feature Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson. Warner Bros. reportedly purchased the film’s distribution rights in March 2019.
Thandiwe Newton was added to the cast in August. [8] In October, Cliff Curtis, Daniel Wu, Angela Sarafyan, Natalie Martinez, Marina de Tavira, and Daniel Wu joined the team. Filming in New Orleans and Miami began on October 21, 2019.
The first ostensibly sad remark in “Reminiscence,” a dark, snail-paced combination of neo-noir and sci-fi, replete with similarly vague wisdoms about time and nostalgia, is “The past may haunt a man.” However, it perfectly captures the tone of “Westworld” co-creator Lisa Joy’s first narrative feature film as a writer/director.
Set in the future along the Miami coast—now half underwater and destroyed by climate change, with a modified kind of life still surviving on its belt at night because the days are simply too hot—“Reminiscence” aspires for something existential inside a well-recognized film-noir pattern.
Unfortunately, the outcome is an unconvincing, vaguely pessimistic dystopia at best, one that liberally borrows 101-level references from well-known Hitchcock films and neo-noirs, only to drown their time-honored essence in murky waters.
How does Reminiscence end?
The noir-ish mystery thriller finishes with some significant discoveries, but if you’ve seen it and aren’t sure how it all worked out, don’t worry. We’ve broken down the main parts of the finale, as well as the hints that suggested we should have guessed it all along.
The truth is exposed by the end of the story: Nick’s father paid Mae to seduce him and take the memories of his client Elsa, who had been having an affair with his father. She and corrupt cop Booth seek down Elsa and her son, and Booth kills Elsa while Mae turns on him in order to save her kid.
Booth kills Mae later, but not before she leaves a message for Nick in Booth’s memory. She explains that she actually loved him and attempted to contact him during the events of the film but was unable.
Nick uses the evidence of the conspiracy to reveal Walter’s son Sebastian as the mastermind, in order to avoid having to share his inheritance with his half-brother. He also explains where the youngster has been hiding since Mae rescued him: a white stilt house in the midst of the water, where Mae used to dwell before moving to Miami.
Booth kills Mae later, but not before she leaves a message for Nick in Booth’s memory. She explains that she actually loved him and attempted to contact him during the events of the film but was unable.
Nick uses the evidence of the conspiracy to reveal Walter’s son Sebastian as the mastermind, in order to avoid having to share his inheritance with his half-brother. He also explains where the youngster has been hiding since Mae rescued him: a white stilt house in the midst of the water, where Mae used to dwell before moving to Miami.
Nick permanently embeds himself in his recollections at the end of the film, partially as a sentence for his actions during the film, which included trapping Booth in a painful memory forever.
The entire film is then shown to be taking place in Nick’s memory decades later with an elderly Watts arriving with her granddaughter to check on her old friend in the memory tank.
Will there be a Reminiscence 2?
It is highly unlikely that there will be a sequel to Reminiscence. This is because firstly, we see that the protagonist, Hugh Jackman is a lost cause having buried himself in his memories so that he can relive his happy times with Mae over and over again. So, there is no chance of Jackman helming a sequel at all.
The second reason why a sequel is unlikely is that the mystery is definitively solved by the end of the movie. We know that Mae is dead, thus ending the agony filled chase that led Nick from Miami to New Orleans. We also know that the mastermind is revealed when Nick exposes the nasty scheme plotted by Walter’s son. He also rests easy knowing that even though Mae came to him with a mission, she did really love him by the end.
Keeping all these things in mind, along with the fact that the film has not received positive criticism and praise, it makes it not so likely that we will see Joy’s neo-noir universe set in a post climate change flooding America will be revived for a part two.
In the case that it does, the only likely course of action seems to be a story from the perspective of little Freddie, the child who Mae died to protect. However, this too, seems like a stretch in this scenario.
Unfortunately, our hopes for a sequel aren’t high.