Code 46

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Code 46 is a 2003 British film by Michael Winterbottom, starring Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton.

In the near future, William Geld, an insurance fraud investigator, receives orders to unmask a forger of "papelles" (visas) operating in Shanghai. However, his life takes a turn for the unexpected when he falls in love with the perpetrator, Maria Gonzalez.

Tropes used in Code 46 include:


  • Artistic Licence Geography: There are no deserts outside of Shanghai. This was a deliberate choice by the filmmakers to show the devastation wrought by global warming.
  • Ascetic Aesthetic: The interior of Sphinx's offices are quite creepy.
  • Big Brother Is Watching: Played with. There are very few security cameras in this world. On the other hand, implanted "viruses" can manipulate human behaviour.
  • China Takes Over the World: The film is mostly set in Shanghai. Dialogue involving the casual use of Mandarin slang heavily implies that China's become a strong economic and cultural influence.
  • Crap Saccharine World:
  • Dystopia: Inside the cities, ultra-capitalist and authoritarian governments have absolute control, including over human memories. Meanwhile, the outside world is a desert populated by the poor and homeless.
  • The Empath: William takes pills which give him an "empathy virus", allowing him to probe the emotions of the people he investigates. The government decides an error in the virus caused him to fall in love with Maria, sparing him, but not her, from exile.
  • Fake Nationality: Maria Gonzalez is played by Samantha Morton, an English actress. This was probably a deliberate choice by the filmmakers, to show how racially diverse the future has become.
  • Fan Service: A gratuitous, ten-second shot of Samantha Morton's crotch.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: "The people outside don't live. They just exist." Which happens to Maria in the end.
  • Gentle Giant: William. (Tim Robbins is much taller than Samantha Morton)
  • Girl of My Dreams: Inverted. Maria always has the same dream on her birthday, of finding her true love, William.
  • Hope Spot: For a moment, the couple seem close to becoming Doomed Moral Victors. Like in 1984, they fail.
  • I Choose to Stay: William decides to escape into the desert with Maria. Sadly, he must have known that Sphinx would implant a trigger for her to denounce him should they have sex...
  • Kuudere: Maria.
  • Light Is Not Good: Due to global warming, city-dwellers mostly walk around at night.
  • Mind Control: The government keeps the public in check by wiping the memories of past delinquents, or by implanting special "viruses" which make people unable to commit certain infringements, such as forbidden intercourse. Repeat offenders get exiled to the desert.
  • Mega Corp: Sphinx. It's suggested that companies have more power than governments in this future.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: William and Maria.
  • Surprise Incest: William and Maria, again, due to artificial insemination and cloning. She's actually a clone of his mother.
  • Unperson: What people become when they're exiled from the cities.
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