Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB (1967; w/d George Lucas)

Darkness (womb/unconscious, in dir’s student film) gives way to tight closeup on androgynous face (mate of title fugitive, YYO 7117: not-the-Self; his dream-representative in drama partly about escape from identity) w/ date + time (numerals/data part of ID, à la binary suggestion of title, Lucas to go digital [following naturalistic American Graffiti detour] long before film’s 05/14/2187 [late spring; calling Yasujiro Ozu]) as voiceover (unseen speaker voice w/i) reports something wrong in sector of complex (disturbance in psyche; location only ever seen in bits [bytes] + pieces à la fragmented ego invisible to enclosing Self) – renegade THX (type ErosBod/genesis sexacte: maverick organic element in mechanized system Lucas’s vision of future-self in Hollywood system awa untamed boy-imagination surviving into adulthood [ntm frantic rogue part of own techie psyche]), whom YYO claims never to’ve loved (tho "ideal mate": she type ClinicBod/genesis proces8 – generic H’wood "product" business-suited old men said people shd be happy w/), Voice concurring w/ her "ErosBodies not as good" (all before TITLES: predisposing sensibility in self 2B worked out during film proper).

THX "located" (symptom identified) as drones inspect infinity-perspective corridor, conceived out of eternity + emerging into birth canal) "leaving the city" (composed of halls + hardware: interior, subterranean world o/t subconscious, They dream-censors trying to keep provocative information from reaching consciousness + disturbing static flow of sleep; city also body soul ever trying to transcend), when "observational contact" made (diagnosis: ID coming into recognition – personality determining self thru action/rebellion); ignores orders to stop (remote voices impotent "authority" o/t rational law+order mind) + escalates to next level (of consc’ss), They in turn establishing "spectral pickup" (spiritual reading; as much his own resonance as Their penetration, he acquiring soul on reaching twd birth) + proposing "mind control" (…next acq’g consciousness) before cutting power (in elevator, keeping him from arising to consc'ss) + inducing hi-frequency freakout (jamming his/own mind) he thwarts by pressing EMERGENCY button (why have I never thot of that? – pain of soul’s inability to ascend, relief once mvmt restored).

On next level (landscape now horizontal, vs lower level’s vertical: approaching literal horizon), cyborg cop (ambiguous/divided Minotaur maze ultimately built to contain: martial consciousness, under happyface disguise) deployed for execution (terminating un-conscious material) thwarted when THX pulls gun ("incredible" – flummoxed by power o/t unconscious/human spirit/timely idea, his pedestrian responses too much for Their technolabyrinthine minds) + simply crowbars escape hatch (unmanned: system not set up for dissent, mind wanting him to ascend) to brilliant light outside (as much illuminating him as his light shining forth into world); "YYO 7117, I regret to inform you [Viet Nam allegory, THX soldier in different quagmire, out of which only optimistic resolution death] your mate destroyed himself [like film/dream on exposure to sun] at 4:52:39 [irrational spirit escaping timebound logical mind]. You may get a new mate" (as figure runs twd dawn: fertilizing cosmic egg – w/i her mind, "mate" 2B father to idea germinated here).