Reminiscence (2021 film)

In the near future, climate change has caused the seas to rise and flood Miami. Extreme daytime temperatures force most of the population to live at night.

Nick Bannister and his friend Watts operate a business that allows people to relive memories. One day, a walk-in client, Mae, asks for their help finding her missing keys. Nick is instantly attracted to her; observing her memories of that evening, he learns she is a nightclub singer and feels a connection with her when she sings his favorite song, "Where or When". They begin a relationship, although Watts distrusts her.

Months later, Mae disappears without a word. Desperate to find her, Nick spends hours repeatedly reliving his memories of their relationship, a dangerous practice that could forever trap him in the memories.

Prosecutor Avery Castillo hires Nick and Watts to retrieve memories from a comatose suspect who worked for a New Orleans drug kingpin named Saint Joe. In the memories, Nick sees that Mae was Saint Joe's mistress and became addicted to baca, a highly addictive narcotic. The memories also reveal that Mae stole Saint Joe's stash of baca before fleeing town. Nick is devastated to learn that she was an addict, something that Watts already knew.

Nick travels to New Orleans and confronts Saint Joe, who says he has heard nothing from Mae since she left him. Saint Joe has his men try to drown Nick, but Watts rescues him and kills Saint Joe and his crew. Back in Miami, Nick has Watts relive her last encounter with Mae, and discovers Mae broke into the vault where they store recordings of their clients' memories. They discover Mae stole recordings of Elsa Carine, a client who repeatedly relived her trysts with an older, wealthy lover. Nick recognizes his voice as that of Walter Sylvan, a wealthy "land baron" who has recently died.

Investigating, Nick learns that Elsa was recently murdered and her young son was kidnapped by a woman who matches Mae's description. While searching for Mae, Nick is attacked by Cyrus Boothe, a former henchman of Saint Joe. Realizing that Elsa's son was likely the child of Walter Sylvan and thus a potential heir to his fortune, Nick confronts Sylvan's widow, Tamara, a former client whose mind has been damaged by excessive memory visitation. In a moment of lucidity, Tamara points Nick to a place where Boothe and Mae could be hiding. Nick and Boothe fight, with Boothe almost drowning before Nick can subdue him. Nick takes Boothe back to his office and places him in the machine to view his memories.

Boothe's memories reveal that the basis of Mae's relationship with Nick was a lie: After Boothe enlisted her in a plan to con Nick, she researched Nick to learn how to seduce him and staged the loss of her keys. But the memories also show that Mae came to genuinely love Nick. When Boothe murdered Elsa, Mae took Elsa's son and fled. Later, Boothe found Mae and tried to force her to reveal the child's location.

Nick watches the memory as Mae delivers a speech to Boothe, which is actually meant for him. She indirectly reveals the location of Elsa's son and professes her love for Nick. Then, seeing only one way out of her situation, she takes a lethal dose of baca and jumps off a balcony to her death.

Devastated, Nick forces Boothe to relive his worst memory: When Saint Joe's men burned his face as punishment for skimming profits. He confronts Sylvan's legitimate son Sebastian, who hired Boothe to eliminate Elsa and his half-brother to protect his inheritance. Sebastian almost commits suicide, but changes his mind and is arrested.

Nick confesses to Watts that he intentionally "burned" Boothe's memories by making him relive them over and over, a major crime. He is convicted and allowed to serve his sentence using his machine to relive his time with Mae, which is implied to be the rest of his life. In his memory, Nick recounts to Mae a shortened version of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, ending with the lovers reunited and happy, before the story's usual conclusion.

In 2013, Lisa Joy's screenplay for the film ended up on The Black List, an annual survey of the most popular unproduced screenplays. According to the survey, which polled over 250 film executives, her screenplay received 20 votes for "best" screenplay.[7] In January 2019, it was announced that Joy would make her directorial debut with the film, which would star Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson.[8] In March 2019, it was reported that Warner Bros. had bought distribution rights to the film.[9] In August, Thandiwe Newton joined the cast.[10] Daniel Wu, Angela Sarafyan, Natalie Martinez, Marina de Tavira and Cliff Curtis joined in October.[11][12] Filming began on October 21, 2019 in New Orleans and Miami.[13][8] In August 2020, Newton's daughter Nico Parker was also revealed to be in the cast.[14][15]

Reminiscence was released by Warner Bros. Pictures[16] in the United States on August 20, 2021.[6] It premiered at BFI IMAX on August 11, 2021.[17] As part of its plans for all of its 2021 titles, Warner Bros. simultaneously streamed it on the HBO Max service in the United States for one month, after which it was removed until the normal home media release schedule period.[18] According to Samba TV, an estimated 842,000 households streamed it over its first three days,[19] and during the month it was seen in over 2 million US households.[20] It was re-added to HBO Max on January 29, 2022.

Reminiscence was originally scheduled to be released on April 16, 2021,[21] before the slot was replaced by Mortal Kombat and the former film was left undated due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[22] It was later rescheduled for theatrical release in the US on September 3, 2021, and internationally on August 25, 2021.[23] The US date was then moved to August 27 to avoid competition with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, then again to August 20.[6]

• List of directorial debuts

• Reminiscence at IMDb