Sound of My Voice

Synopsis: Two documentary filmmakers are determined to expose the truth about Maggie, the mysterious leader of a secretive cult who claims to belong to the year 2054. Although they believe that everything is nothing more than a fraud, the filmmakers end up driven by her charisma.
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Director(s): Zal Batmanglij
Production: 20th Century Fox
  1 win & 7 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.6
Metacritic:
67
Rotten Tomatoes:
75%
R
Year:
2011
85 min
$300,000
Website
771 Views


PETER:

This is it.

LORNA:

Pull into the driveway.

Use the remote to open the garage.

Do not exit the vehicle.

Close the garage door behind you.

[GARAGE DOOR CLOSING]

Wait for further instructions."

[DOOR OPENS]

TIMOTHY:

Follow me.

Be thorough with the soap.

OBAMA [ON TV]:

Eleven workers lost their lives.

Seventeen others were injured.

And soon,

nearly a mile beneath the surface...

TIMOTHY:
Stand.

...of the ocean, oil began...

...spewing into the water.

Your records?

Because there's never been a leak...

TIMOTHY:
Hold on to that.

...this size at this depth...

...stopping it has tested the limits

of human technology.

That's why just after the rig sank,

I assembled a team...

...of our nation's best scientists

and engineers to tackle this challenge...

Step up. Watch your head.

Step up. Watch your head.

[KEYS JINGLE]

Let me see your hand.

Finally, Peter.

Welcome.

Let's gather round. Take a seat.

First I'd like to say

welcome to our new members.

As is our custom, they have been

preparing on the outside for some time...

...but now we feel

they are ready to graduate...

...and to join us.

So let me introduce Peter

and his girlfriend, Lorna.

And this is Christine and her husband, Lam.

Now, let me say a word to you new folk.

No sudden movements.

And no questions for tonight.

The first night is always the most difficult.

But as our other members here can attest...

...an unforgettable experience.

Okay.

Maggie.

[MEDICAL EQUIPMENT WHIRRING]

Hi.

It's nice to see new faces.

Thank you all for taking the precautions

to come here.

It shows you have a great deal of faith.

Now let me return that trust...

...in telling you my story.

Like anything new...

...it will be impossible

for your mind to digest.

Maybe close your eyes.

Try Opening up. Here.

Try listening from your heart.

Two years ago, I woke up underwater.

It was a bathtub,

filled about three-quarters high.

I was gasping for breath.

Coughing up...

...snorting out this water.

[GASPING]

I felt this...

...terrible sense of loss.

Like when you wake up from dreaming

about someone you love so much.

And you turn around in bed and remember...

...that they've been dead for years.

What was I doing in that motel room?

[CLATTERING]

[WOMAN SPEAKS IN SPANISH]

I remembered my name, my birthday.

October 31st.

[SPEAKING IN SPANISH]

Nothing else.

I ended up out on the streets.

As people with no ID...

...no money...

...no memories do.

I felt really lonely.

And exhausted all the time.

My immune system was gone.

At that time, my legs and my right arm

would fall asleep.

Like in meditation, you know, but for hours.

And I couldn't wake them up.

They were strangers to me.

And I couldn't remember anything.

But I still had to wake up every day,

still had to keep going.

I had no idea who I was

or what I was doing here.

And that's when Klaus found me.

He had heard about me from others.

Had heard of my tattoos.

[INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE]

And he took me in.

And he fed me.

And he gave me vitamins.

In about three or four weeks...

...I started to remember things.

Many terrible things.

Violent images.

I was so angry.

I thought I'd lost my mind.

And then Klaus explained it to me.

My tattoos. This failing body.

The things I'd remembered.

What it all meant.

Open your eyes.

I wanna show you something.

You see, the anchor is the sign of a traveler.

And the number 54

refers to where I come from.

You see, I come from 54.

Your future.

Did we get anything?

Nothing. Static.

We didn't get a single frame?

We went out of range.

Damn it.

What's the matter?

Nothing.

You're, like, shaking.

I'm not shaking, Peter. I'm a little racy.

It's just a bunch of crap, Lorna.

Yeah, I know.

They're weak

and they're looking for meaning.

Yeah.

You know, those people are suckers.

That's it.

But what if she is?

What? From the future?

Uh, no one is from the future, Lorna.

[CHUCKLES]

Well, then who is she?

She's a con artist. She's dangerous.

That's why we gotta make this film.

We have to expose her before

she has all those people kill themselves.

I've gotta take a leak.

[LORNA CHUCKLES]

Are you okay?

You don't wanna come with me'?

[INHALER SPRAYS]

[EXHALES]

NARRATOR:

Peter Aitken likes math, reason, himself.

Things he can count on.

When Peter was 12,

his mother was diagnosed with cancer.

A longtime member of a New Age cult...

...she believed that modern medicine

shouldn't intervene in her fate.

She died on the eve of Peter's birthday,

while they were both asleep.

Peter awoke 13 and motherless.

[PETER PANTING]

We began by preparing on the outside...

...meeting at weekly intervals...

...at the West Court shopping strip mall...

...with 20 other new recruits

that were eventually weeded down.

Couldn't tell the exact location

of the house.

By my count, we were in the van

for approximately 20 minutes...

...but it's possible that they were giving us

the runaround, so...

He)'

He)'

To see her is to believe her.

But of course, that's how these cons work.

Even if the new recruits doubt her story,

they'll be back for more.

[PETER CHUCKLES]

I'm trying to work. Please?

Maggie says

that the future is already written...

...and that her members

are the chosen ones.

Peter Aitken signing off.

Good morning, everybody.

Uh, Miss Parker had her baby,

so she will be out for a couple months.

And that means

you guys are stuck with me, Mr. Aitken.

So, what will it be, ladies?

We have the American Civil War

or the anatomy of a cell?

[ALARM CLOCK BEEPING]

PETER:

Lorna?

[MOANS]

Lorna.

PETER:
Lorna.

What?

NARRATOR:

Lorna Michaelson.

Daughter of Hollywood producer

Isaac Michaelson...

...and Allie Bernard,

the British model turned actress.

Lorna was left to an unchaperoned

adolescence of movie premieres...

...and club openings.

Lorna had her first hangover at 12,

her first intervention at 16.

By 23 she was burnt out,

tired of playing entourage.

So Lorna cleaned up her act.

Tequila shots replaced with

wheatgrass shots.

But in the end, it was one addiction

traded for another.

PETER:

Lorna.

[LORNA GROANS]

Watch your head.

[SITAR MUSIC PLAYING OVER SPEAKER]

KLAUS:

Shake it out. Shake it out now.

You are fools.

Your muscles are tight

with repressed feelings.

Who you were before is irrelevant.

Let go of you, become the group.

I have to exhaust you people...

...to get you to stop thinking

and start breathing.

[BREATHES DEEPLY]

[ALL BREATHING DEEPLY]

JOANNE:

Don't be worried.

Maggie's tests will get harder.

But if you pass,

then you're meant to be with us.

Then you will be ready when it begins.

This is where we grow Maggie's food.

Go on, pick one.

MEL:

Okay.

Are you good?

Yeah, fine. Do it.

Just think about Maggie.

She's allergic to absolutely everything

in this time period.

You can eat these?

Of course you can, kiddo. Heh.

It's the grocery store

you've gotta be wary of.

Produce grown by

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Zal Batmanglij

Zal Batmanglij (born 1981) is an American film director and screenwriter. He directed and co-wrote the 2011 film Sound of My Voice and the 2013 film The East, both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Netflix series The OA, which debuted in 2016. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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