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  • *Light switches on*

  • It's time for film theory

  • these youtube delights will have memish ends

  • *Cinematic Music*

  • *Woosh*

  • *Film Theory Theme Song*

  • Hello internet! Welcome to Film Theory, the amusement park for your mind!

  • Sure, we don't have any roller coasters or cotton candy or Ferris wheels, but we do have science, math, and history lessons!

  • Wait, where are you going? Come back, come back!

  • Fine,

  • I know what you all really want--

  • excessive violence and gratuitous nudity, am I right? Right!

  • And when it comes to blood and boobs, no one beats HBO

  • I mean who doesn't love "Game of Thrones" and um, uh . . . huh--

  • "Game of Thrones" and . . .

  • Hmm.

  • Well, those Crafty HBO Executives knew exactly how to solve their programming woes

  • make a show with even more nudity and more gore than" Game of Thrones."

  • That's right, today I'm talking about "Westworld,"

  • the show for everyone who ever went to Disney world and thought to themselves,

  • "You know what this would be so much more magical?

  • If I could just shoot Mickey and then get it on with a cast of 'It's a Small World.'"

  • By the way, in case you haven't noticed yet this episode might get a little

  • NSFW.

  • Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar,

  • "Westworld" takes place in the not too distant future where mankind is on the brink of a new

  • technological revolution--

  • machines that not only pass the Turing Test, but can behave, think, and act like actual human beings.

  • So, obviously, we stuffed them into a Wild West show where rich people can kill and sex with them.

  • I mean, I can't think of any other practical use for such Advanced AI

  • Robotic technology than put them into an x-rated Six Flags. (campy music)

  • Nope, can't think of one single better use for a robot than a wild west themed amusement park.

  • NAILED IT, fictional television future!

  • Anyway besides all the blood squibs and boobs,

  • there's one thing that keeps people tuning into "Westworld" the show week after week,

  • and that is the mystery. There are so many different mysteries,

  • It's honestly hard to keep track of them all! Who's the man in black?

  • What's at the center of the maze?

  • Who's Arnold?

  • And that's just naming three.

  • Yet, "Westworld" over the course of its fantastic first ten episodes answered every single one.

  • Suck on that, "Lost"!

  • Amd I really wanted to do an episode covering some of these issues as the show was running

  • because 1) I really wanted to talk about it,

  • And 2) I really wanted to introduce you guys to a show that I think you're really going to enjoy,

  • but I couldn't

  • because when a typical episode of "Film Theory" takes two weeks or more to make,

  • it makes it really hard to come up with videos that didn't get answered in the following week's episode.

  • But now with the season done and people slowly catching up on everything that they missed

  • there's one mystery still left standing,

  • one mystery that "Westworld" hasn't revealed yet,

  • and that's the location of the Westworld park, and this isn't just some random piece of trivia

  • It's an important question for the show. In fact, in an interview right before the season finale,

  • co-creator Jonathan Nolan offered up this cryptic tease on the Park's location,

  • quote "By the end of the first season if you're paying close attention, you will know where the park is" end quote.

  • He was then immediately interrupted by his co-creator and wife Lisa Joy who disagreed.

  • But of course, this spurred on every single over-analyzer online to theorize on just where the park was set.

  • Could it be on its own private Island,

  • or perhaps mainland Australia,

  • or Mars,

  • or an asteroid in space?

  • Well, let me tell you, after carefully going through each episode of "Westworld" and its online marketing,

  • none of those theories actually hold water.

  • Nope.

  • Today I'm trolling through television's most cryptic show to solve the last lingering question from its first season--

  • Where is Westworld?

  • The answer will be revealed by the end of today's episode,

  • but if you want a hint, well, you've already gotten it.

  • *Dramatic Gopher Music*

  • Let's start by debunking the most common theories.

  • First, an island--Sure Westworld may be based on a film and book by Michael Crichton

  • who, yes, definitely had a thing for islands. (bad harmonica music)

  • But if Westworld was set on an Island or any body of land on Earth,

  • you would naturally expect some sort of Indigenous livestock: bugs, birds anything really.

  • But, per the Westworld terms and conditions website,

  • only the flies that you find within the park are actually real. Per the website,

  • Quote "All Livestock within the Delos Parks are hosts,"

  • --that's Westworld terminology for the robots--

  • "with the notable exception of flies" end quote.

  • Thus, all islands on the surface of Earth are automatically ruled out of consideration.

  • So then, what about Mars or space?

  • Well, I've looked at all the internet's best evidence

  • and it all stems from a single shot in the deepest bowels of the Westworld headquarters

  • where a globe is visible for just a split second.

  • This globe, according to one person online looks suspiciously like it has continents of

  • Mars, and not of Earth.

  • However, the way that the light plays on the image, it's just clearly a globe of Earth that was misread

  • You can even make out the light underside of South America on it.

  • So that theory feels a bit dead in the water as well.

  • But what if Westworld was in the one place that you would never think to look,

  • one right under our noses and under the sea? (laughs) Oh now,

  • this is my favorite part 'cause it's time to gather some evidence!

  • "Someone left some evidence."

  • Point number one--size. If we know nothing else about Westworld, we know that it's really big--

  • really, really big! In an interview with Jonathan Nolan

  • he estimated that Westworld is roughly

  • 500 square miles. For comparison, Disney world is only 40 square miles, and that's the biggest amusement park in the world!

  • At 500 square miles, New York City would be half of Westworld Park

  • So, getting your hands on land almost twice the size of NYC is gonna

  • S-U-C-K, but the ocean covers

  • 141,600,000 square miles!

  • Let me repeat that--

  • 141 million square miles, more than enough room for a sprawling adult version of Freddie's Pizzeria.

  • Point number two--the weather within Westworld never changes.

  • It's always the same, calm, static Western hue.

  • Again, per the Westworld terms and conditions site, quote

  • "Statistically speaking, you're more likely to die from a lightning strike than to die while in a Delos park," end quote.

  • But if that's true, which obviously it must be since it's online and everything online must be true, then the desert must have a very

  • non-desert-like temperature considering a typical desert in the summer sun could reach highs of 140 degrees Fahrenheit

  • before plummeting below 50 at night, and that level of

  • fluctuation can and does kill!

  • So if the Delos Corporation claims that Westworld is basically the safest place on Earth, that means that they have complete control

  • over the weather. It can't actually be a real desert,

  • but if it's not then what exactly is it? Well, in another interview with Jonathan Nolan, he revealed one of the biggest

  • influences on "Westworld," the video game "Bioshock"

  • Quote. "I was a big fan of the 'Bioshock' video games which I thought were among the most literate and thoughtful pieces of entertainment that

  • I've seen in the last ten years," end quote, him and me both, and in "Bioshock,"

  • we follow our protagonist Jack as he navigates an art Deco Wonderland built entirely--

  • you guessed it--under water contained in biospheres created by the mysterious business tycoon, Andrew Ryan.

  • Sound a bit familiar?

  • "Westworld" even has a super-subtle reference to "Bioshock" in the background of the third episode. In Robert Ford's workshop,

  • There's an eerily familiar head in the background, the head of one of "Bioshock's" most famous characters-- Sander Cohen.

  • And no, I'm not just hallucinating or seeing things!

  • This was actually confirmed by the creators. These references could hint at Westworld being in an artificial, underwater

  • biosphere, which makes a ton of sense. In a biosphere, Westworld employees would have complete control over the desert environment and could absolutely

  • guarantee complete safety. Just look at the shape of the Westworld's park hologram, an almost perfect circle,

  • just like a biosphere.

  • This underwater setting would also work perfectly with Westworld's complete isolation

  • from the outside world. Throughout the series, the only events

  • we see are contained either in the park itself or in the hallways of the company headquarters. The brief glimpses of the outside world

  • come in via an unreliable Skype function. "Sorry it took me a while to get back to you.

  • You know how hard it is getting an open line out here." Given the technical marvels of the near future--

  • I mean then crafted sentient robots for crying out loud!--

  • it's odd that something as simple as Skype would be so unreliable,

  • but wireless communication has always been dependent on radio signals traveling from a

  • transmitter to a receiver. These signals, though, start to break down when they have to move through electrical conductors--

  • electrical conductors like, you guessed it, ocean water.

  • If Westworld is under the ocean, it makes perfect sense that communication would be so spotty.

  • "But what about the satellites?"

  • I hear you saying, and I knew I'd have to contend with some really smart fellow

  • theorists while talking about the show since, man, you guys solved so many of these shows mysteries early. Some people solved, like, the biggest mysteries

  • of the show within the first two episodes. It was wild! And yes,

  • we do hear about different satellites flying around the park. Early on in "Westworld," Bernard and LC discovered that a rogue android had smuggled

  • a satellite uplink in its arm, and on the employee's screens we even see options for a satellite view. Now

  • obviously, satellites are typically found in space, yet many of these satellites could be disrupted, and as such, the Department of Defense

  • recently set up satellites in a place far more secure, hundreds of feet under the ocean.

  • No joke!

  • This is real life and not just the universe of "Westworld." It's called the Tactical Undersea Network

  • Architectures program or TUNA. I see what you did there, DARPA! So, TUNA uses optical fiber based tech to, quote, "integrate a military

  • tactical data network into an

  • undersea network," end quote. The fact that the Delos Corporation in Westworld has to resort to smuggling data outside the park

  • suggests that they don't have access to more traditional satellite uploading tech,but rather a much-harder-to-crack undersea satellite network.

  • But THE biggest clue that Westworld is set under the sea, the one that convinced me that this theory is correct,

  • lies in the fine print.

  • Throughout the course of this episode, we visited the "Westworld" website a couple of times, the whole page dedicated to the terms and conditions of

  • going to the park. Well, these terms and conditions are filled with really

  • specific and really weird word choices. The entry of the park is referred to as "the port of entry." Quote, "Upon entering the Delos

  • destination's port of entry, you are agreeing to the terms and conditions as laid out in this document."

  • Later on in the contract, the area outside the park is called the mainland. Quote again,

  • "If Delos Inc. or any Delos entity believes, in its sole discretion,

  • that a violation of these terms has occurred, it may take any and all corrective action it deems appropriate without notice, including

  • contacting local authorities on the mainland," end quote. And finally, after guests have left the park they have to stay at a decompression

  • chamber. Final quote, "Westworld is an experience like no other, and we've designed the world's finest

  • decompression chamber: the Mesa Gold," end quote. All of these words-- port,

  • mainland, decompression chamber-- are all nautical or sea-related terms.

  • Sure, maybe one would be a coincidence, but three terms directly referencing the ocean, that's way too big to ignore.

  • So I did some further digging into the terms and conditions

  • website, pouring over each section, and then it finally hit me. In the section on Crime, the page

  • specifies that all crimes within Westworld will first be investigated by the owning Delos corporation and that quote, they've "successfully

  • avoided . . . outside court entities for [their] entire existence," end quote

  • It's basically saying Delos, a business corporation, has absolute judicial power within its borders.

  • It would be as if Walt Disney could try any crime that happened at EPCOT, which means that the park is treated as

  • practically its own sovereign nation for all legal purposes. Now, any sort of land-based park would be subject to the laws wherever they're

  • located, but out in the sea things start to get murkier.

  • Per the United Nations convention on the Law of the Sea, article 87(1) states that "the high seas are open to all states, whether

  • coastal or landlocked." The same article reveals that within the sea you have the freedom to construct

  • artificial Islands, as long as it doesn't interfere with trade routes,

  • just like a biosphere underwater. Thus, it's only under maritime law that the Delos

  • Corporation would have complete judicial control over its park, just as the terms and conditions

  • website states. But if you're still, STILL not convinced, let's just jump back to that scene with the globe in episode one.

  • There's one really simple detail here that a lot of people have missed. "It's, the simplest solution."

  • "Ah, it's Occam's Razor." The Occam's Razor of this situation is the water pouring in from the walls.

  • Where's it coming from? If we go by the Delos corporate map, the final level is barely at the base of Castle Rock,

  • barely at ground level!

  • So then why is there so much water cascading around their feet when we're underground? The only

  • solution that makes any sort of sense that fits all of the conditions--the size

  • Isolation legality, and leaking water--is if Westworld's actually surrounded by water on all sides,

  • deep within the ocean itself, literally

  • 20,000 leagues under the sea. Now, doesn't that make the wait for season two even cooler? Not just samurai world,

  • but underwater samurai world!

  • I told you all you'd like this show. But hey, that's just a theory--a Film Theory! Aaaaaand

  • cut!

  • Welcome back to the (echo) Super Amazing Endcard Tournament! Back by popular demand,

  • but now we have to do it a little bit differently since Youtube is getting rid of annotations.

  • So "Westworld," have you seen the show before this episode? Have I convinced you to go watch it

  • or do you still not care? Click on one of the options and let me know.

  • This is honestly also me testing out a new way of doing the (echo) Super Amazing Endcard Tournament (stop echo) because that whole

  • annotation thing, this is the new way to do polls here. So hey, help me out, test it out.

  • I'm excited to see how it works.

  • And hey, if you want more mind-blowing coverage on "Westworld," then lasso the button that just appeared onscreen to check out a

  • fascinating look into the philosophy of "Westworld." After watching this video you see onscreen,

  • I went and re-watched the series, and oh my gosh!

  • I got so much more out of it! Now if you excuse me,

  • I need to go give myself a dose of eye bleach. That opening moment, oh boy! (sucks air through teeth) I may have crossed the line on that one.

*Light switches on*

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