THX 1138


THX 1138 is a 1971 American social science fiction film co-written and directed by George Lucas in his feature directorial debut. Produced by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written by Walter Murch, the film stars Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasence, with Don Pedro Colley, Maggie McOmie, and Ian Wolfe in supporting roles. The film is set in a dystopian future in which the citizens are controlled by android police and mandatory use of drugs that suppress emotions.
THX 1138 was developed from Lucas's 1967 student film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which he created while attending the USC School of Cinematic Arts. The feature film was produced in a joint venture between Warner Bros. and American Zoetrope. A novelization by Ben Bova was published in 1971.
The film received mixed reviews from critics and underperformed at the box office upon its initial release, but it has subsequently received critical acclaim and gained a cult following, particularly in the aftermath of Lucas's success with Star Wars. A director's cut prepared by Lucas was released in 2004.

Plot

In the dystopian future, sexual intercourse and reproduction are prohibited, and mind-altering drugs are mandatory to enforce compliance among the citizens and to ensure their ability to conduct dangerous and demanding tasks. Workers wear identical white uniforms and have shaven heads to emphasize uniformity, likewise with police androids who wear black and monks who are robed. Instead of names, people have designations with three arbitrary letters and four digits, shown on an identity badge worn at all times.
At their jobs in central video control centers, SEN 5241 and LUH 3417 keep surveillance on the city. LUH has a male roommate named THX 1138, who works in a factory producing android police officers. At the beginning of the story, THX finishes his shift while the loudspeakers urge the workers to "increase safety"—and congratulate them for only losing 195 workers in the last period—to the competing factory's 242. On the way home he stops at a confession booth. A Christ-like portrait of "OMM 0000" intones reassuringly as he worries that his sedatives are not working and LUH has been acting strangely.
At home, THX takes his drugs and watches holobroadcasts while engaging with a masturbatory device. LUH secretly substitutes pills in her possession for THX's medications, causing him to develop nausea, anxiety, and sexual desires. LUH and THX become involved romantically and have sex. THX is later confronted by SEN, who attempts to arrange that THX become his new roommate, but THX files a complaint against SEN for the illegal shift pattern change.
Without drugs in his system, THX falters during a critical and hazardous phase of his job, and a control center engages a "mind lock" on THX which raises the level of danger. After the release of the mind lock, THX makes the necessary correction to that work phase. THX and LUH are arrested and THX undergoes drug therapy and medical analysis. He enjoys a brief reunion with LUH, but it is disrupted shortly after she reveals her pregnancy.
At THX's trial, it is stated that THX was clinically born. It is decided that it would be inefficient to terminate THX, so THX is sentenced to prison, alongside SEN. THX and SEN walk to search for an exit. Eventually they are joined by hologram actor SRT 5752, who starred in the holobroadcasts. SRT shows them the exit and suggests to them that they may have been going in circles. During the escape, THX and SRT are separated from SEN. Chased by the police androids, THX and SRT are trapped in a control center, from which THX learns that LUH has been "consumed", and her name has been reassigned to her fetus, numbered 66691, in a growth chamber. SEN eventually escapes to an area reserved for the monks of OMM, where a monk notices that SEN has no identification badge. SEN attacks him and later wanders into a child-rearing area, strikes up a conversation with children, and sits aimlessly until police androids apprehend him. THX and SRT steal two cars. SRT struggles to figure out how to drive the car. When SRT finally gets the car to move, he immediately crashes his car into a concrete pillar. After the crash, SRT is not found in the vehicle.
Pursued by two police androids on motorcycles, THX flees to the limits of the city. Android officers continue to pursue him as he briefly struggles with simian-like creatures identified as "shell dwellers" and arrives at a vertical shaft with an escape ladder. The android officers are ordered by Central Command to cease pursuit, on the grounds that the expense of his capture exceeds their allocated budget for THX. In a last-ditch attempt to convince THX to surrender, the officers claim that the area outside the "city shell" is uninhabitable, but he is undeterred and continues up the ladder. The city is then revealed to be entirely underground, while THX has escaped onto the surface, where he witnesses the sun setting.

Cast

  • Robert Duvall as THX 1138
  • Donald Pleasence as SEN 5241
  • Maggie McOmie as LUH 3417
  • Don Pedro Colley as the hologram SRT 5752
  • Ian Wolfe as the old prisoner PTO
  • Marshall Efron as prisoner TWA
  • Sid Haig as prisoner NCH
  • Irene Cagen as prisoner IMM
  • John Pearce as prisoner DWY
  • Mark Lawhead as Shell Dweller
  • James Wheaton as the voice of OMM 0000
The announcer voices include those of Scott Beach, Terence McGovern, and David Ogden Stiers, all of whom had ties to the San Francisco Bay area, as did Lucas.

Production

THX 1138 was the first film of a planned seven-picture slate commissioned by Warner Bros. from the 1969 incarnation of American Zoetrope. George Lucas wrote the initial script draft based on his earlier short film, but Francis Ford Coppola and Lucas agreed that it was unsatisfactory. Walter Murch assisted Lucas in writing an improved final draft. For some of SEN's dialogue in the film, the script included excerpts from speeches by Richard Nixon.
The script required almost the entire cast to shave their heads, either completely bald or with buzz cuts. As a publicity stunt, several actors were filmed having their first haircuts and shaves at unusual venues, with the results used in a promotional featurette titled Bald: The Making of THX 1138. Many of the extras were recruited from the nearby Synanon, an addiction-recovery program that later became a violent cult.
Filming began on September 22, 1969. The schedule was planned for 35–40 days, completing in November 1969. Lucas filmed THX 1138 in Techniscope.
Most filming locations are in the San Francisco area, including the unfinished tunnels of the Bay Area Rapid Transit subway system, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, the San Francisco International Airport and at a remote manipulator for a hot cell. Several scenes show one of the FAA 9020 IBM System/360 used for air traffic control multi-computer installation. Studio sequences were shot at stages in Los Angeles, including a white stage for the "white limbo" sequences. Lucas used entirely natural light.
The chase scene features two Lola T70 Mk III race cars chased by Yamaha TA125/250cc two-stroke, race-replica motorcycles through two San Francisco Bay Area automotive tunnels: the Caldecott Tunnel between Oakland and Orinda and the underwater Posey Tube between Oakland and Alameda. According to Caleb Deschanel, cars drove at speeds of while filming the chase. Other cars appearing in the film include custom-built Ferrari Thomassima cars, one of which is on display in the Ferrari museum in Modena, Italy.
The chase features a motorcycle stunt in which stuntman Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton rode his police motorcycle full speed into a fallen scaffold, with a ramp built to his specification. He flew over the handlebars, was hit by the airborne motorcycle, landed in the street on his back, and slammed into the crashed car in which Duvall's character had escaped. According to Lucas, Hambleton was uninjured but angry at the people who came to his aid, worried that they may have ruined the stunt by walking into frame.
THX's final climb out to the daylight was filmed in the incomplete Bay Area Rapid Transit Transbay Tube before installation of the track supports, with the actors using exposed reinforcing bars on the floor of the tunnel as a ladder. The end scene in which THX stands before the sunset was shot at Port Hueneme, California by a second unit of photographer Caleb Deschanel and Matthew Robbins, who played THX in this long shot.
After completion of photography, Coppola scheduled one year for Lucas to complete postproduction. Lucas edited the film on a German-made K-E-M flatbed editor in his Mill Valley house by day and Walter Murch edited sound at night, comparing notes as each session ended. Murch compiled and synchronized the sound montage, which includes elements such as the "overhead" voices, radio chatter and announcements. The bulk of the editing was finished by mid-1970.
On completion of editing, Coppola took it to Warner Bros., the financiers. Studio executives disliked the film and insisted that Coppola provide the negative to an in-house editor, who cut about four minutes of the film prior to release.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to THX 1138, conducted by Lalo Schifrin, was released in 1970. Recording took place on October 15 and 16, 1970 at the Burbank Studios in Burbank, California.

Track listing

  1. Logo – 00:08
  2. Main Title / What's Wrong? – 03:14
  3. Room Tone / Primitive Dance – 01:46
  4. Be Happy / LUH / Society Montage – 05:06
  5. Be Happy Again – 00:56
  6. Source #1 – 05:18
  7. Loneliness Sequence – 01:28
  8. SEN / Monks / LUH Reprise – 02:44
  9. You Have Nowhere to Go – 01:12
  10. Torture Sequence / Prison Talk Sequence – 03:42
  11. Love Dream / The Awakening – 01:47
  12. First Escape – 03:01
  13. Source #3 – 03:34
  14. Second Escape – 01:16
  15. Source #4 / Third Escape / Morgue Sequence / The Temple / Disruption / LUH's Death – 08:31
  16. Source #2 – 03:17
  17. The Hologram – 00:56
  18. First Chase / Foot Chase / St. Matthew's Passion – 07:40