Man of the World (Film)
| Man of the World | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Salvador Reyes |
| Produced by | Daniel Espiga |
| Written by | Salvador Reyes |
| Starring | Lorenzo Miralles, Miguel Sarmiento, Sergio Alvarado, Gonzalo Alemán, Mónica Capmany, Selena Pardo |
| Music by | Aarón Fonseca |
| Cinematography | Lautaro Montes |
| Edited by | Julia Sáez |
Production company | VHunt Productions |
| Distributed by | VHunt Productions |
Running time | 133 minutes |
| Country | Cartadania |
| Language | Spanish, Cartadanian |
| Budget | $45 million |
| Box office | $10 million |
Man of the world (Spanish: Hombre del Mundo) is a 2032 film shot in Cartadania and written and directed by Salvador Reyes. The director of the film claims it to be a piece of historical fiction using a fake plot to showcase what he claims are real events going on in the Puertegan government. The plot of the film is that the main character Hugo is a conspiracist of multiple stereotypical and mainstream conspiracy theories until one day on a trip to try and prove one of them he is thrust into a whole different world of theories where he discovers all the theories he believed in before were fabrications made up and secretly perpetuated by the government of Puertego in order to distract from what was really going on where the government is attempting to call ancient aliens that once visited the old civilizations of Puertego. He is then contacted and recruited by a secret society called the HCLI which was founded by elites who knew about the plans of the Puertegan government and are dedicated to stopping it.
The film has garnered widespread criticism from multiple people and the government of Puertego who call the concept of the movie absurd however a dedicated cult following of the director fully believe that all the conspiracy theories that the movie puts forward. The film was banned in Puertego on the day of its release and everyone who worked on the film has been banned until further notice from entering the country. The film contains many fringe conspiracy theories in it and themes of cargo cults with the overall theme of the film being that the current government of Puertego is no better than simply being the largest cargo cult in the country.
Plot
A Puertegan man named Hugo has been wrapped up in conspiracy theories such as a new world order, theories about big corporations, reptilian aliens being in politics and other mainstream conspiracy theories since he was a young adult. One day he rents a small boat and sails out to a small island not far from the main island in an attempt to prove one of his theories about an attack being a false flag true. However, once he reaches the island where travel is usually restricted, he witnesses a government organization running experiments on and eventually starting up an ancient structure. Hugo attempts to escape under heavy fire after he is discovered and gets off the island before his boat is sunk by the organization. Hugo wakes up the next morning on a different island and is found by a young woman who introduces herself as Isabella, she leads Hugo to an underground bunker filled with the higher ups of an organization named the HCLI, made up from various world elites that have come together for the purpose of stopping the secret plans of the Puertegan government. They explain to him that these plans are to bring back the ancient aliens that were misinterpreted as gods by the ancient civilizations of Puertego and that all of the conspiracies he believed in beforehand were simply distractions set up by the government so that the general populace would believe that the actual conspiracy was just another paranoid theory.
Hugo decided to join the organization as an agent to help stop the Puertegan government after it was explained to him that after what he saw the government of Puertego would start going after him. He is sent out on his first mission with a small group after staying at the base for a few days where he and the group have to raid a weather control base responsible for creating false UFO sightings with sky-snags that is being disguised as a radio station. On the way to the weather station the group must travel by boat and views an island containing natives that are part of a cargo cult on it, the other members of the group mention to Hugo how they view the current government of Puertego with its plan on bringing back aliens as no better than the cargo cult they were seeing. After killing the people who were creating the sky-snags and destroying the machines being used for it the group finds a long list of people involved in the conspiracy to bring the ancient aliens back with a member of the group highlighting ones that are people of significance in different countries. In the time between missions Hugo mulls over everything he's been hearing and visits the groups archives to learn more about the ancient aliens they kept bringing up and learns that the ancient Puertegans were visits by aliens who were what they called their gods and gifted multiple pieces of extremely advanced technology onto them before the civilizations weakened themselves by infighting from not being ready to use the technology before they were all depatterned by the aliens and the technology was shut off once the Loa and Pelaxian colonization of Puertego began. After learning this Hugo is sent off on another mission this time to investigate the various number stations around the world, after a misunderstanding with the people working at the number stations leads to a shoot-out the equipment there is broken causing a piece of the alien technology to activate prematurely and fire on the HCLI base destroying it before the technology is put back under control.
After the base is fired upon the group loses communications for orders and quickly disbands leading to each of the members easily being captured and executed by agents of the Puertegan government with the film ending on a bleak note that the Puertegan government is still working on the project in secret.
Production
The production of the film has a very turbulent history with Reyes claiming the film suffered many budget cuts from failing to meet deadlines and that the production was rushed in places, Reyes claimed that due to this he was unable to properly implement all of his ideas despite the films already long 133-minute run time. On the film set of the movie there were multiple reports from people who worked on the movie that Reyes was extremely overbearing and aggressive towards them yelling at them for minor mistakes and overall being difficult to work with.
Reception
The film was received very poorly upon release with multiple sites meant to review movies placing it at historically low scores, the main reasons listed are the films awkward dialogue, very poor CGI effects, poor pacing, lack of sense in the plot, and extremely preachy nature among other more minor things. However, the film very quickly gained a cult following among conspiracy theorists and fans of Salvador who claim that the theories shown in the movies are the director exposing the truth about the plans of the Puertegan government in a fictional plot as a cover up.