Technology can be a useful tool. It allows conversations without physical proximity, captures moments in pictures and allows people to build connections through the internet and social media platforms. However, the growing evolution of technology and its ability to know and see everything also presents some concerns, like the possibility of someone sending you anonymous AirDrops saying that you have to kill your date.
Despite the generic character arc and overdramatized production, “Drop” presents its audience with a scary new reality of technology that is worth paying attention to.
The thriller movie “Drop,” which debuted on April 11 and is rated PG-13, follows Violet Gates, a widowed mother, on her first date with a man she met via a dating app. Her hopes of a nice dinner are crushed when she receives a series of Digidrops, a fictional form of AirDrop, from an anonymous source instructing her to either kill her date or lose her son.
Violet is a survivor of domestic abuse and works as a therapist and mentor for other women in abusive relationships. From the jump, this sets her character up for a “redemption arc” where she proves she is more than her past and that there is hope for the future. While this underdog storyline can be inspirational, it is often overdone in modern media and therefore is difficult to pull off without intentionality, and this film is not intentional when it comes to writing a successful and cohesive story.
The production in many scenes is overdone and distracts from the dialogue. The use of haunting music and sudden lighting changes to convey intensity forces the audience to feel fearful rather than an engaging script that induces those emotions organically. So instead of feeling empathetic and connected to the characters when they are scared or have deep conversations about hope and escaping from abuse, the narrative falls flat.
Despite these flaws within the film, the overall plot brings up some important concerns of the lack of privacy and security surrounding modern technology. And it’s not the first piece of media entertainment to introduce this topic either. The Netflix film “Carry-On” uses the situation of a virtual hostage to showcase this point, and “Zero Day” displays what would happen if a cyberattack shut down electricity nationwide.
While “Drop” was unsuccessful in its attempt to tell an inspirational, redemption story, the film posed introspective questions about the dangers of technology that are worth paying attention to and far more captivating than the plot of the movie itself.
