Absolon

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Absolon is a 2003 Sci Fi/Thriller film set in a Dystopian near future. In the year 2010, a plague wipes out five billion people. A treatment, Absolon, is eventually discovered, and the world government that arises from the ashes of The Plague distributes Absolon to what's left of Humanity.

Fast forward several years. Mankind is still dependent on Absolon, requiring daily injections to avoid catching The Plague. Detective Norman Scot (played by Christopher Lambert) is investigating the murder of Dr. Frederick Reyna, the scientist who created Absolon. In the course of his investigation, he meets World Justice Department Agent Walters (Lou Diamond Phillips), who is strangely interested in the case, as well as Dr. Claire Whittaker (Kelly Brook), the woman in charge of the group that was funding Dr. Reyna's research.

Scot discovers that Dr. Reyna was working on a cure for The Plague, and turns out he may have been killed to cover it up. As he digs deeper into the mystery, his whole world gets turned upside-down, and even Absolon itself may not be what it seems...

A Direct to Video movie, Absolon was done on an estimated budget of $8 million, most of which must have gone to the cast, as there seems to have been precious little left over for anything else. The scenes with Ron Perlman are easily the most entertaining parts of the film.

Tropes used in Absolon include:

Scot: Shut the fuck up.

  • Race Against the Clock / Title In: Once Scot finds out he can no longer take Absolon, a countdown starts appearing on the screen telling how long he has before succumbing to Stage 2 of the disease.
  • Right Man in the Wrong Place: Scot is given the cure because he happens to be a universal donor.
  • Scavenger World: According to the Opening Scroll, the world is living off of pre-plague surplus, with Absolon being about the only thing actually produced.
  • Schizo-Tech: Holograms exist alongside technology that was dated when the film was made. Justified considering the state of the world.
  • Shout-Out: Possibly not on purpose, but Scot's clothes look very much like the wardrobe of Conner MacLeod.
  • Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Dr. Reyna's autopsy lists the year as 2017.
  • Twist Ending: Not quite the end of the movie, but near the end it's revealed that... The Plague died out a long time ago. The cure that Scot gets is actually for Absolon. Absolon is effectively a highly addictive drug that alters the host's body chemistry, making him unable to live without it.
  • Wire Dilemma: Averted. Scot seems to magically know which wire to cut to stop the bomb.