Movie Review: Sleep Dealer

I just sent back "Sleep Dealer". Another movie found on a list of under appreciated whatevers.

There are jacks that you can plug in to yourself for entertainment, sex, communication, or work. You can record your memories through them and sell them to other people.

Corporations have started damming up rivers and making people pay for water. People who try to get their water back are deemed terrorists.

The main character grew up and works on his father's farm in Mexico. His dad bought the place when the river still ran and continues to try to work it even when he has to buy what little water he can from the dam. The main character plays with building electronics in his spare time. Until, he intercepts a communication between some remote control aerial drones near San Diego and their military command. The next day the drones are sent to take out the person who overheard them. The kid is visiting relatives so it's his dad that takes the torpedo.

The kid goes out to the city to earn money for the family. He meets a girl on a bus who sells her memories of him. This and that happens. She's asked for more about him by a mysterious stranger. She helps him get the communication jacks so he can work. He gets a job operating construction robots in America somewhere while his body remains jacked in in Mexico. I should mention that the border is completely closed unless you're someone with a damn good reason for getting across.

Eventually it's revealed that the pilot of the drone that killed the main character's father feels bad and has been doing research to find the kid. He's the one that's been buying the girl's memories. The pilot tracks down the kid, apologizes, and asks how he can help. The kid asks him to use his drone to wipe out the dam so the farm can have water.

And they both spend the rest of their lives in hiding and fighting the water hording corporations.

It's mostly in Mexican with subtitles. Sometimes you get people speaking English and someone translates it for the characters.

Worth a rental but slow enough that it's not gonna hold a kid's attention for long.