On July 4, 2005, twin nuclear attacks destroy El Paso and Abilene, Texas. The catastrophic event triggers World War III, prompting the U.S. government to reinstate the draft and establish US-IDENT, a draconian mass surveillance agency. Amidst a global fuel crisis, the German company Treer creates "Fluid Karma," an inexhaustible energy generator driven by ocean currents. Treer's lead scientist, Baron Von Westphalen, secretly plans to use this technology for world domination.
In 2008 Los Angeles, right-wing action star Boxer Santaros awakens with amnesia. He forgets his marriage to Madeline Frost—daughter of Senator and Vice-Presidential candidate Bobby Frost—and starts an affair with psychic ex-porn star Krysta Now. Meanwhile, a Neo-Marxist underground plots to destabilize the government and US-IDENT. They coerce the amnesiac Boxer into participating in a staged police brutality incident. The plan involves identical twins: police officer Roland Taverner, whom they have kidnapped, and his brother Ronald. The Neo-Marxists intend to frame Ronald, dressed in his brother's uniform, for murdering two activists. However, a rogue cop interferes and actually murders the activists. Krysta accidentally leaks a video of the incident, sparking massive city-wide riots.
As Los Angeles descends into anarchy, the city's elite gather on Von Westphalen's Mega-Zeppelin to celebrate the global launch of Fluid Karma. Aboard the ship, scientists reveal to Boxer that Treer's experiments have created a rift in the space-time continuum. Boxer is actually his own future self, having traveled back in time, while his past self died. The scientists warn that if two identical souls make physical contact, it will trigger an apocalyptic cataclysm. Furthermore, Roland and Ronald are not twins, but the exact same person coexisting from different timelines.
On the ground, armed rioters storm US-IDENT headquarters. During the chaos, Roland and Ronald find each other and grasp hands. Their physical contact causes them, along with a nearby vehicle, to levitate as a massive time rift opens in the sky. Above them, an anti-draft insurgent fires a heat-seeking missile at the zeppelin, destroying it and killing Boxer and the elites aboard. As the cataclysm begins, Iraq War veteran Pilot Abilene narrates that a new age is dawning with Roland as its messiah, concluding with Boxer's earlier realization: "pimps don't commit suicide."
Kelly wrote Southland Tales shortly before the September 11 attacks. The original script involved blackmail, a porn star, and two cops. After the attacks, Kelly revised the script. He said, "[The original script] was more about making fun of Hollywood. But now it's about, I hope, creating a piece of science fiction that's about a really important problem we're facing, about civil liberties and homeland security and needing to sustain both those things and balance them." He described the film as a "tapestry of ideas all related to some of the biggest issues that I think we're facing right now .
Reception
Along with two other American filmmakers (Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation), Southland Tales was in competition for the coveted Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and was screened on May 21 at the Grand Lumiere Theater.
Many critics responded unfavorably to the film's long running time and sprawling nature. Roger Ebert described the Cannes screening as "The most disastrous since, yes, The Brown Bunny." Salon.com critic Andrew O'Hehir called the Cannes cut "about the biggest, ugliest mess I've ever seen."
Roland Taverner: We're taking the ATM machine with us to Mexico.
Roland Taverner: Sounds neat... How does he stop the global deceleration?
Starla Von Luft: [to Boxer] The information that I have uncovered could get me…
Krysta Now: Well, in my first six movies I was just Krysta, you know, but then in order to differentiate myself from the 76 other Krystas in the business I added the Now.
Cyndi Pinziki: Wow.
Krysta Now: Well, it's all…
Krysta Now: Can you keep a secret?
Cyndi Pinziki: Yes.
Krysta Now: I'm fucking a very large and important man.
Boxer Santaros: There is no stopping what can't be stopped. Only God can stop it.
Krysta Now: But The New York Times said: "God is dead."
Vaughn Smallhouse: Are you Deep Throat 2?
Krysta Now: Oh, I'm not in that movie.
Boxer Santaros: Do you ever feel like there's a thousand people locked inside of you?
Roland Taverner: Sometimes.
Boxer Santaros: But it's your memory that keeps them glued together. Keeps all these people from fighting…
